


Ring of Fire

by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers Compliant, Disaster Follows Tony Around, F/M, Feels, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 Compliant, New Relationship, Snark, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-05 02:24:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1801936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxEtoile/pseuds/NyxEtoile, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlivesAwl/pseuds/OlivesAwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post Iron Man 2.</p><p>
  <i>"Why don't we take a vacation?"</i>
</p><p>
  <i>"Like the last vacation where you stole a race-car and we almost got sliced into ribbons by your crazy, tentacle-having nemesis?" She put her hand over her eyes, remembering the car she was in getting sliced in half.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>"No. No, nothing like that one. A good vacation." He tapped her nose as if to distract her. "You. Me. Secluded island. No work, no cameras. No suit," he added, like dangling out a carrot.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This starts immediately after the end of Iron Man 2. Almost certainly the first in a series (because we are insane). Part of the same universe as our Clintasha _Somewhere They Can't Find Me_ series but can be read without knowing anything about that. There just may be references later on.

_2010, New York_

If there was anything romantic about being carried around by Iron Man, it had worn off halfway back to Manhattan. It was cold, and windy, and Pepper had no shoes on. She’d wanted to call a car, but Tony hadn’t wanted to sit in traffic. And Tony got what Tony wanted, which was why her toes were now numb.

It was at least a short flight, before he set them on the terrace of his penthouse. Tony owned the top floor of a hotel facing Central Park. Technically he owned the whole hotel, which he’d bought just so no one could bother him about what he wanted to do upstairs. And, also technically, _she_ had bought it. Tired of listening to complaints from the co-op boards of the last three penthouses he’d owned— because they always called her— Pepper had decided he was just getting a whole building, with something downstairs that would be useful when he was away. And would not contain any rich permanent residents to call her and complain that he was drilling holes in the ceiling.

She’d spent the flight thinking about the fact that he’d kissed her. That they might be starting something they’d so cautiously avoided for so many years. She had avoided, at least. Maybe it was something, or maybe it was just the adrenaline. A moment of weakness. He wanted the one girl he could never have and she wanted. . . 

She wished she knew.

On the terrace, he steadied her, and pulled his face mask off. “I told you that would be faster than driving.”

She felt compelled to glare at him. “It was cold.”

He gestured at the french doors leading into the penthouse. "Hot bath?"

That actually did sound very appealing. She looked up at him. "Call room service. Order me chocolate. Like a lot of chocolate." She pointed at him. "And a Dr. Pepper. And the most expensive red wine they have."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, almost sounding contrite. "All the chocolate. Got it." He pushed the doors open and held it for her. She went in, and listened to him clank and clang behind her as he took off the suit. She ran hot water in the giant tub in his bathroom. All his bathrooms had giants tubs. He'd told her once they needed to be able to fit at least three girls in there. The hotel stocked the supplies, so she found bubble bath.

Sinking into the hot water was utterly magnificent.

She was just beginning not to hate him when she heard the room service arrive and the distinctive sounds of Tony being. . . _him_ to some poor person. She should probably get out. Soon. In a minute.

The bathroom door opened and an arm holding a tray of chocolate cake poked in. "Peace offering?"

"You can come in," she said. The bubbles did come up to her chin.

He poked his head in and she saw a brief flash of disappointment on his face before he turned the Stark charm back on. He walked over and perched on the edge of the tub. "It's chocolate lava cake," he sing-songed, offering her a forkful.

She smiled and leaned forward to take the bite. He really did know her. This was, in fact, all the chocolate. He bent and followed the bite with a kiss. This one was far gentler then the one on the roof. It seemed like a very un-Tony-like kiss. She watched his face when he lifted his head. He looked different—or, well, like himself. She hadn't noticed how sick he'd looked before. How could she have not noticed that? 

She opened her mouth for another bite of cake. He fed it to her obediently, then seemed to just watch her a moment. "What are we doing here, Pepper?" he finally asked.

"You're feeding me cake and I'm eating it," she replied. She knew that wasn't what he was asking about. But the bath was warm and the cake was delicious and this conversation was hard.

"Okay. Twenty minutes from now, what are we doing?"

He did not relinquish more cake, so she sat up enough to reach out and take the fork from him. If he was paying attention, he was probably going to get flashed a little, but she imagined somehow he'd survive. "I assume you expect to be in this tub with me by that point."

"It has made it to my life's goals list," he agreed. "But your tone tells me I might need to brace for disappointment."

She always braced herself, and it never helped. "I realize you are a guy, and so sex before talking makes sense." It would be so easy to say yes. She wouldn't even have to say a word, just stand up. She wanted to. It would probably do her good. And _be_ good. She'd heard a lot of gushing over the years about his skill in that particular area as she herded women out the front door.

_Oh, right. That._ A welcome reminder about why not. "But you can't just wipe everything away with a kiss."

"Are you sure? Because I haven't even shown you my A game yet. It involves a roaring fire and some Sinatra—"

She reached up at took the plate from him. "Give me my cake."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He sat on the edge of the tub, hands loosely folded, hanging between his knees. He looked like a little boy and a tired old man all at once. He'd looked like that a lot lately. "I know I have things I need to make up to you."

Pepper shifted, leaning against the edge of the tub and resting her arms on it. He made her nervous when he didn't look at her. She put her hand on the small of his back and shifted in reaction, just a tiny bit. She felt a lump in her throat, and for a moment it was hard to speak. "You were really dying," she whispered.

His shoulders slumped a little further. "Yeah," he said quietly. "I really was."

The stupidest thing was, it was so obvious now. Giving away his possessions. Hijacking a race car. All but begging her not to make him go home. Trashing his house by having a drunken brawl with his best friend. But he'd always been reckless and little self destructive, so she let it creep up on her. Like a frog in a pot of boiling water. She felt tears collecting in the corners of her eyes. "Were you really going to tell me? Were you going to let me say going to let me say goodbye?"

"Yeah. I think so, anyway." He huffed out a breath. "I thought if I told you then you'd, I don't know, expect me to do something to fix it. Like, order me to. And then I'd have to _try_ because it was you asking. Then I'd spend my last days desperately scrabbling for more days. I wanted to enjoy myself a little, first."

She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "However hard you tried for yourself would be as hard as was physically possible. There's nobody Tony Stark loves more than Tony Stark."

He chuckled dryly. "Yeah." He slapped his hands on his knees and stood. "Yeah." He half turned to look down at her. "Thing is. Tony Stark's not worth much without you, is he?"

She looked up at him, not knowing what to say to that. "I don't think that's true. And, anyway, I'm still here."

He gave a little nod. "There is that." He cleared his throat and straightened up. "I will let you enjoy your bath and cake. There is more chocolate waiting when you're done."

The door clicked behind him as he left. She stared at it for a long moment. They hadn't settled or answered anything at all. If anything, she felt worse. She settled into the bubbles and stared at the wall. Even chocolate wasn't going to help now.

* 

He probably should have ordered himself something when he was dessert binging for Pepper. He had fought a rather impressive battle against a bajillion droids. Okay, the suit did most of it. And Rhodey had helped. But still! Battle.

He settled for stealing a chocolate mousse (and was it really stealing when he'd ordered it from a hotel he owned?) and sank into a ridiculously comfortable armchair. He could hear Pepper splashing around in her tub and closed his eyes with a groan, trying not to picture things. Like the very clear eyeful of slick, soapy breast he'd gotten when feeding her cake. He was definitely not picturing that. At all.

The tub was draining now, which meant she'd gotten out of it and was standing naked in the bathroom, drying herself off. Nope, not thinking about that either. 

The bedroom door opened and she came out into the living room, wrapped in fluffy white robe. Her hair was damp and her eyes were red, like she'd been crying. Like, really crying. Pepper did an adorable ugly cry. _Not good._

He glanced down at the mousse he'd eaten half of. He held it out like an offering. "I saved you some."

She waved a hand at him, and went to get the bottle of wine. He'd opened it and had half a glass to taste test it. He didn't expect her to take a swig straight from the bottle like it a bum with cheap hooch.

Yeah. Definitely not good.

"I'm pretty sure you miss some of the subtleties like that."

She brought it over to the couch. "I'm not looking for subtleties," she said. "It's been a very rough day."

"That's true. You're unemployed now. In the hotel room of a strange man. And a bunch of droids almost killed you. Though I'd think you'd be used to metal things attacking you."

She flinched. "I guess I should."

He rubbed his face. He'd left all of his smooth at home today, apparently. "Jesus, Pepper. I'm sorry."

Pepper sighed deeply. "No, I shouldn't. . . I don't want all of our conversations now to involve you apologizing. Not that you don't deserve that, because you do. It would just drive me crazy pretty quickly."

The corner of his mouth lifted, almost against his will. "I'd run out of ways to say it. Then it'd become a verbal tic. 'I'm sorry, pass the salt please?' Then it would lose all meaning."

She took another swig of her wine. Why was watching her drink straight from a wine bottle sexy? "Just wait until you're old and have high blood pressure. I'll take the salt away and you'll have to beg me for it."

"You'll enjoy every minute of it, too," he said, taking a resentful spoonful of mousse. Talking about when he was old and infirm was good. That was promising. He was going to encourage this line of thinking. "I'm sure Jarvis will organize my pill regime with finesse."

She was quiet a moment. "Is this what we're going to do Tony? Banter and make jokes until it goes away?"

He pointed to the bedroom door. "I tried talking about it. You wanted your cake."

"I never claimed brush-it-under-the-rug banter was all you." She shook her head. "I just feel like if I start talking it's just all going to come out and I'm going to start screaming."

"I can handle screaming," he told her. "Maybe I'll join it. It's better then whatever this-" he waved a hand between them. "Is. I think it's gonna explode long before it goes away."

She leaned forward, and gave him the look that usually meant he was in trouble. "How could you not tell me you were _dying_?"

"How was— how was I supposed to tell you? Sure, let me sign some things, nice shoes, by the way the thing keeping me alive is slowly poisoning me, sushi for lunch?" He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I wasn't exactly dealing with it well myself, how was I supposed to dump that on you?"

She stood up. "You tell me however you feel like telling me. Any way would have been perfectly fine. Remember when we were flying back from Monaco and you were trying to convince me to play hooky? Great time. Or earlier, how about when you just dropped Stark Industries on me? Context for you checking out would have been fantastic." She paused in her rant to look at him. "The arc reactor was killing you?"

"Not the reactor, the metal core." He gestured to the light on his chest. "Apparently, walking around with a fistful of metal in your chest is _bad_." He gave a "who knew?" shrug.

"And you fixed it?"

"Yeah. I needed a new element, something non toxic. SHIELD gave me some of my dad's old files. Turns out he'd had this idea for a new element- Anyway, long story short I made it, it works, no more poisoning," He rapped his knuckles on the reactor. "Dad and me, working together from beyond the grave." He tried to say it lightly, but he was pretty sure some of what he was feeling about that came through. At least, she'd notice it.

Sure enough, her face changed. Pepper knew him better than anyone. Perhaps because of that, though, she didn't comment. "Only you could say 'I made a new element' in the same tone of voice as 'I made a sandwich."

He smiled. "Well, you know, it was a slow day."

"You could have told me. Maybe I could have helped, or done. . . something. You kicked me out."

"Honestly, Pepper, I'm not the most rational guy on my best day. Add in impending mortality and you've got to expect some bad behavior."

She turned to look out the window, and he watched her silhouetted against the Manhattan skyline. "That’s perfectly fine," she said finally. "But it doesn't tell me how I'm supposed to trust you."

Hesitantly, he went to stand next to her. "I don't think there's anything I can say that will tell you that. You know me too well to fall for anything I have to say." He looked out at the city lights. "I'd like the opportunity to _show_ you you can trust me. But you gotta make the first leap for that. To let me try."

She turned her head to look at him. He could see surprise on her face; he didn't know if that was good or bad. Finally she said, "If you fail, you will shatter me into a thousand pieces."

He swallowed hard and lifted a hand to tuck a lock of damp hair over her ear. "Then I won't fail," he told her, with all the certainty he didn't feel. He could see her searching his face, could see her deciding. But he didn't entirely believe it until she leaned in and kissed him. He gave her a tug and she pressed her whole body against his, with no stupid metal suit between them.

She was soft and warm and fit perfectly against him. He cupped the back of her head and gave her his A game. Fireplace be damned.

When she leaned back, she rewarded him with a beautiful smile. "You know, you're really good at that. I really do want to sleep with you."

The bluntness surprised a laugh out of him and he grinned. "Yeah?"

She reached up to run her fingers through his hair. "Yes. But I am not going to. Because there's no coming back from that."

He deflated a little at that. "No. I suppose not." He paused, wondering when and why he had decided to grow a sense of honor. He blamed the suit. "Can there be more kissing?" he asked finally.

Pepper laughed. "Yes. And considering how frequently you've accidentally groped me over the years, I'm even pretty confident second base is manageable without, you know, depolarizing us."

"Well in that case—" He tugged her closer still. "You wanna eat chocolate and make out till we fall asleep?"

She laughed. She leaned into him. He was fairly certain he would be going to bed with blue balls tonight, but he decided it would be worth it when she nibbled on his lower lip and whispered, "Yes."


	2. Chapter 2

Pepper woke up sore, and with a pounding headache. Wine hangovers were the worst. She didn't expect to be bruised, but he had kind of crashed into her at speed while wearing a big metal suit. She stretched and opened her eyes. She was in Tony's bedroom, in his bed, and she was dressed. A glance to her left revealed that so was he, the arc reactor glowing through his t-shirt. She remembered falling asleep in the living room, and then very dimly remembered being carried and him muttering about being too old to sleep on the couch, and keeping his hands to himself.

Funny he'd taken her to his room instead of one of the guest rooms. She poked him with her elbow. "You awake?"

"Guh." The little grunt-groan he made was kind of adorable. He swatted at her arm. "No. I'm very asleep. No one pokes me when I'm sleeping. I prefer sleeping."

She looked at his closed eyes. "I was thinking about taking my shirt off."

His lids stayed shut but he arched a brow. She really didn't know how he did that without opening his eye. "You're bluffing."

She leaned over, until her mouth was and inch from his. "Yes."

"See? I know you." He lifted his head that last inch and kissed her. Pretty thoroughly for a guy who claimed to be asleep. He'd always been an excellent multi-tasker.

Eventually she lifted her head. "Answer me honestly. Have you ever slept next to a woman just to sleep? Passing out before you can finish doesn't count."

Now his eyes opened, bloodshot but relatively focused. He considered the question a long moment. She wondered if he had some sort of Rolodex of sexual encounters he needed to sort through. He'd probably make fun of her for thinking Rolodex.

"No," he finally said. "Not just to sleep."

She straightened up, sitting indian style on the bed next to him. She was oddly pleased by that. That Tony Stark could still experience something new. "Thank you."

He rested a warm hand on her knee. She could _see_ him about to make a flip, Tony Stark comment. But he appeared to reconsider and just smiled. "Any time."

She put her hand on his, and then she shifted so their fingers laced together. Holding hands like they were kids. "Torture level? Scale of 1-10."

His thumb stroked the back of her hand as he contemplated. "Well, you are pretty cute when you sleep," he admitted. "So I'd probably put it around a seven. But then the snoring started and it was an entirely different kind of torture."

She laughed and punched his arm. "I do not snore." 

"It's a very cute snore. Almost dainty. And the murmuring and teeth grinding is barely noticeable."

The teeth grinding, at least, she had to acknowledge. She had a mouthguard back in her hotel room for exactly that. Though she hated using it; it reminded her of when she had braces as a kid. "You know I didn't used to grind my teeth before I came to work for you."

"I shudder to think of the list of things you didn't do before coming to work for me." He shifted, sitting up against the head board. "How did you sleep?"

"Surprisingly well. Though I was pretty drunk." She sighed. "I'm going to need to go deal with some stuff. The expo is. . . probably still on fire. My assistant turned out to be a secret agent. The stock market's open and probably kicking our ass. Etcetera."

He nodded. "Time to face the world, then?"

"Yeah. You can probably go back to California if you want. The suit looks pretty badly beat up. Just send the jet back for me. I'm not flying cattle."

He patted her knee again. "Done. I think I'll shower first. And take all the aspirin the hotel has."

She watched him climb slowly out of the bed and stretch. "I know I have quit and not meant it many times before. But I think I may mean it this time. We're going to have to sit down at some point and figure out what that means."

His shoulders slumped a little and he sighed. He glanced back at her a moment, then nodded. "That can probably wait till we're back in California, though, right?"

She climbed off the bed and came around in front of him. It was easier when he was being arrogant and sarcastic. She knew how to handle that. The flashes of real emotion threw her. It was a new and fragile thing, whatever they were now. She tipped his chin up so he'd look at her. "Yes. And it doesn't mean I'm leaving you."

He slid his hands around her waist. "I should hope not. Or I'd have to start building new companies, just to keep you around."

"That was kind of romantic in a you sort of way." She gave him a quick kiss. "Go shower. I'll order us breakfast."

He started for the bathroom door. "I require something with syrup," he called over his shoulder. "And breakfast meats. Many breakfast meats."

*

He flew back to California, though he had the vague sense he should have stayed. Seemed like the sort of thing a woman would want him to do. Hang around and be supportive. Or something. But she'd told him to go home, and he wasn't going to get into the habit of second guessing her instructions. She wasn't going to morph into one of those women who said one thing and wanted another.

Also, his house was trashed, and he needed to deal with that. He needed it fixed. He’d put Jarvis on it while on the jet, and was pleased to see the construction crew was already there by the time he got home. As expected.

Not as expected was Rhodey sitting in the remnants of his living room, still in the suit. "What the—"

"Hammer did something when they put me in the suit. I can't get out." His voice was matter of fact, and promised murder should Tony laugh.

He had a sense of self preservation. It just wasn't as strong as his sense of humor. "Have you tried Crisco?"

"Shut the fuck up. This is a sacrifice for friendship, man. I respected the sock on the door and didn't come bother you last night."

"There was no sock on my door last night," Tony said, stashing his sunglasses in his jacket pocket so he could inspect the suit. "It was sock free. In fact, I think I was wearing my socks all night."

"That does explain why you're alone."

"Pepper stayed in New York for damage control. I need a screwdriver." He wandered in the general direction of what had been the kitchen. There had been screwdrivers there. 

Rhodey clomped after him. "Looked like you two were sorting that out."

"In a manner of speaking." Aha! A screwdriver, right on the remains of the counter. He snatched it up and turned back to Rhodey's suit. "She came to the hotel with me. We just didn't do anything that required a sock." He lifted Rhodey's left arm and started poking around underneath.

God damn Justin Hammer. He was going to have to take him downstairs. "That's tragic." Rhodey commented. "You know she's too good for you, don't you?"

"I actually did know that." He leaned back and tossed the screwdriver in the air, catching it as it flipped. "Come on. I need to take you to the shop, get the heavy machinery."

Oh course, he'd turned most of his workshop and garage into a particle accelerator. Rhodey eyed the mess and rolled his eyes. It was nice to know he was predictable.

Power tools worked much better in getting the suit open.

He tossed the last piece away and tipped his welders mask up as Rhodey climbed out of the mess. "I hope you weren't planning on wearing it again."

The other man rolled his neck gingerly. "Will you build me a new one?"

Tony sighed dramatically. "I _suppose_. But just because you're you."

"Somebody's gotta keep you in line, man."

He surveyed the chaos of his lab. "I guess this is me in line," he mused.

"That's frightening." Rhodey looked at him. "Maybe you should go to a hotel while they fix this place."

He didn't want to live in a hotel while they fixed his house. He wanted to be in his house. He wanted to start his life again. Start tinkering. Show Pepper his A game. He needed home base for that. But all he said was, "Hmm. Have you had breakfast? Technically, I had it with Pepper but that was three time zones ago and I'm peckish."

"When are you ever not hungry?"

"I burn a lot of energy," he called over his shoulder, heading for the stairs. "Jarvis, is my fridge still working?"

"Yes, sir," Jarvis replied dryly. "All that's in it is beer, Klondike bars, and dijon mustard."

He paused on the steps, Rhodey a few behind him. "What kind of beer?"

"Don't answer that," Rhodey said before he could answer. "We're going to Denny's. And you need to drink less."

That— that was probably true. Rhodey prodded him up the steps and out the front door. It had gotten worse with the impending mortality. A lot worse. Definitely time to cut back. Not that he could say all that to Rhodey. "Well, I can hardly drink more."

"Not everything's a joke, Tony."

"Everyone wants me to be serious today," he muttered. "You're not even a pretty redhead."

"No, but I am the only other person who will call you on your bullshit." He got between Tony and the car door. "You plan on learning anything from this or not?"

He hated when people wanted him to be serious. Flip answers were his first and best weapon. Especially when his best friend was starting to sound like an after-school special. "Uh, I get by with a little help from my friends?" Actually, that was a pretty accurate lesson to the last few days.

His friends. His father. Pepper. 

Rhodey made a derisive noise, and pushed off the door and went around to the passenger side. "The last time you almost died, you made the suit. Turned your company inside out, and made the US military hate you. Pretty big act to follow."

"Yeah. I'm going to have to think about this one." He slid behind the wheel and waited for Rhodey to settle next to him. "I think Pepper and I are starting something. Long term something. A not-me something."

The car door slammed, and he fired up the engine. "You know my first instinct is 'I'll believe that when I see it.' "

"That was kind of her reaction, too. I am not so blind to my faults that I don't see the wisdom in it." He peeled down the drive and out to the street. "I mean it, though."

Rhodey was silent for a while. "It's worth it, you know." Vanessa, Rhodey's wife, didn't like Tony all that much so he didn't see much of her—there had been a very unfortunate event involving the Amsterdam hookers and a snowmobile at the bachelor party that had resulted in the both of them having crutches and broken noses at the wedding that she'd never forgiven him for. Even though it had been ten years now.

"People seem to speak highly of it. She's probably the only one who'd put up with me long term."

"That is an absolute truth. Don't fuck it up."

He squinted out at the road and the water beyond it. "I will do my utmost not to."

*

Pepper's long day had been full of meetings and calls. By the end of it she was exhausted, and wasn't anywhere near done. She also had no assistant anymore, as Natalie/Natasha had vanished. Happy was trying to help but it wasn't exactly his wheelhouse. She'd deal with that when she got back to California. 

She wanted to go home, and sleep in her own bed. Unfortunately the jet hadn't made it back to New York. She didn't know or care why. It was probably because Tony forgot—not entirely unsurprising, but she didn't dwell on it. He got into things and got distracted. She didn't want to be irritated at him, too. It had been too long a day. Maybe there had been mechanical problems. So she called a charter jet service she'd used other times Tony forgot his plane, and made arrangements. The had to go out to Teterboro in New Jersey to meet it. She just wanted to go home.

To her surprise and relief it was Tony's plane sitting on the tarmac waiting for her. The rent-a-jets were generally quite nice, but nothing beat Tony Stark's plane for creature comforts. She could get a proper nap in before she even got home.

Or so she thought, before she boarded and found Tony himself waiting for her inside.

She stopped in aisle and looked at him. "What. . ."

He spread his hands. "Surprise. I thought you might like company. Possibly vent about your day. As couples do."

She wanted to sleep. And she wasn't even sure she'd quite call them a couple. But he was _trying_. He was watching her, waiting for her reaction. So she climbed into his lap and wrapped her arms around him.

He rubbed her back with one hand, holding her on his lap with the other. "You look beat," he told her, kissing her shoulder.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "I am. I wish we'd gone to Venice."

"See? You never like my ideas but they're usually good ones." She felt him nod to the flight crew and heard the distinctive sound of the doors being sealed. "My house is under construction," he told her.

"I should hope so." She nuzzled his neck, thinking that he smelled good. He usually did, unless he was particularly hungover, or had been locked down in his workshop too long. "You and Rhodey smashed it good."

"As only two angry men in metal suits can." He grinned suddenly. "He was there when I got home. He got stuck in his Hammersuit."

That made her laugh, and she needed a laugh. "I'll find you a hotel room. Just let me rest a bit." She wasn't his assistant anymore. But Tony didn't do things like make hotel reservations.

He continued to rub her back as the plane taxied in preparation for take off. "I had a brilliant idea today. I want to run it past you."

That could mean a wide range of things. She cracked one eye open and asked a very wary, "What?"

"Why don't we take a vacation?"

"Like the last vacation where you stole a race-car and we almost got sliced into ribbons by your crazy, tentacle-having nemesis?" She put her hand over her eyes, remembering the car she was in getting sliced in half. She'd really thought she might die that day.

"No. No, nothing like that one. A good vacation." He tapped her nose as if to distract her. "You. Me. Secluded island. No work, no cameras. No suit," he added, like dangling out a carrot.

Island. Beaches. Warm water. That sounded divine. "The company. . ."

"Has survived me all these years. It will still be standing if we take a week off. Besides, you're not the CEO, anymore, remember?"

"The only person I told that to is you. It didn't seem like a good idea to bring it up today. So for the moment I still am."

His fingers tangled in the ends of her hair, playing with the strands. "You still need a vacation."

She lifted her head to look at him. "No suit?"

He lifted his hand like he was taking a vow. "I promise. Just you and me. Bathing suit optional."

She felt herself smiling. "Okay. One week."

For once the triumph in his grin wasn't smug at all. He cupped her cheek with one hand before drawing her closer for a kiss.


	3. Chapter 3

The beds on Tony's plane were very comfortable, and Pepper slept the sleep of the dead. He didn't even make a joke about trying to join the mile high club. When she woke, she felt well rested—like she'd slept longer than the four hours it would take them to get to California. She pulled up a window shade to sunlight, and far below beneath the clouds she could see ocean. She sat up, looking for the clothes she'd taken off last night, and found only a flowered sundress hanging on a hook from the ceiling. "Tony?" she called.

After a moment, he poked his head in the door. "Sleeping Beauty awakes!"

He was wearing shorts, she noted. "Are we going on vacation _now_?

"No time like the present, Pepper." He said it like it was obvious. Like everyone dropped everything and went on vacation with no warning. Because in Tony Stark Land they totally did that.

It amused her that he'd apparently packed for her. "What if I'd said no?" She got out of bed to take the dress off the hanger, letting him stare at her in her underwear. Call it a reward.

He braced his shoulder on the door jamb, arms crossed over his chest, not even trying to hide his stare. "You would have gotten a new tropical wardrobe as your consolation prize."

She took the dress off the hanger and slipped it over her head. It fit perfectly. "You can't remember that I'm allergic to strawberries, but you know my dress size."

"I buy you clothes way more often then I hit the farmer's market for you."

Usually she picked them out, though. She shook her head and smiled. Funny the things he chose to store in that head of his. She turned and looked at him, watching her. "You really planned a vacation? By yourself?"

"Jarvis helped," he admitted. "But I made him, so really, it all traces back to me in the end."

"Thank you." She kissed him. "Thank you."

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "You." He kissed her. "Are very welcome."

He made them omelets, and let her make a few calls to at least notify people she was going to be out. She was surprised to find she had a new assistant, who informed her she'd been hired by Natalie. The woman sounded very competent, and Stark's COO told her that he thought they both could use some rest.

Across from her, Tony was building what looked like a very tiny robot. "We're all good," she commented. "This is the first time I've had a week off in. . . years." 

He glanced up at her. "Did your previous bosses run you as ragged as I do?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't have many. Just my shit jobs and internship in college. I came to work for Stark right out of grad school." She'd also tried to take several vacations while working for him. He'd called her daily anyway—despite the temp she provided him. After the second time he sent the plane to collect her halfway through because he couldn't function, she gave up trying.

After that, the next time she had any time off was when he'd been in a cave in Afghanistan. They'd thought he was dead. She'd spent most of that sitting around in her living room. She could have classed her pay under bereavement leave.

He poked at the robot again, ratcheting its arm back and forth. "I suppose I'll have to write you a letter of recommendation," he mused. "Now that you're really, really quitting."

Pepper laughed. "Oh. I don't need a new job. I'm going to retire."

That actually made him grin. "You? Retire? Do nothing all day?"

"It sounds like fun." She didn't even sound very convincing to her own ears. "I could find something to do. Maybe I'll be a philanthropist." She watched him put the screwdriver he had between his teeth. "When you hired me—" He'd pointed to her in the cafeteria and said 'Bring me that one'—"You had gone through sixteen assistants in eight years. You'd had sex with all of them, and at least two, at any given point, were actively suing the company." He replied with a small apologetic shrug. "Obadiah offered me 100 shares of stock each month I went without sleeping with you. That was eleven years ago." The fact that he dropped the screwdriver with a clatter was very satisfying. 

"That sonovabitch," he said when he was able to speak again. Then he grinned at her. "You are going to be one of those retired people who're busier then when they were working. And for you, that would be saying a lot." He twisted something on the robot and it started zombie walking across the table to her. "In six months you'll be heading up three boards of directors, organizing auction events for two more and volunteering at the sad orphan kitten home on Sundays. You'll be begging to run Stark again."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm more of a dog person." She caught the robot when it came to her, and turned to walk back to him. 

"The sad orphan puppy home doesn't want your pity." 

Laughing only encouraged him, but it sometimes he made it very hard. "That's why I said no, you know," she told him. "Back then. Irresistible as you are, I had $80,000 in student loans."

"You know, it's actually nice to know there was a reason other than you're impervious to me." The robot reached him again and he plucked a flower out of the little vase that sat on the table. He stuck it in the robot's hand and turned it back to her. "Dare I ask how many zeroes your bank account has now?"

"When I add your generous compensation package on top, plus the CEO signing bonus and general golden parachute. . .Many. Many, many." She picked up the flower when it reached her. It smelled tropical. "Definitely I've hit fuck-you-money."

He was giving her that look. Head tipped down, gazing at her through his lashes. It was his impressed with her look. Tony Stark wasn't easily impressed, especially with her. It had taken her a long time to realize that it wasn't because what she did wasn't impressive. It was because Tony expected her to be a certain level of awesome. it was only when she surpassed that did she get impressed look. "And yet all I got for Christmas was a tie."

And then he ruined it.

"That was your birthday, not Christmas, and I was mad at you." She replied, matter-of-factly. She sent the robot back again. "Don't you know a passive-aggressive spite gift when you see it? There was also a bottle of scotch I think you blew up while skeet shooting in the living room." 

The look on his face was pained. "There were a lot of bottles of scotch in that living room. And a truly passive-aggressive tie would have been ugly."

"I told Natalie to pick it out," she shot back.

He laughed, catching the robot and turning it off. "I'm only going to donate to five of your pet causes, Ms. Philanthropist. You'll have to make your arguments count."

"I expect pretty soon I'm going to have some pretty powerful methods of persuasion at my disposal." She watched his breathing change, and knew he understood what she meant.

He shook a finger at her. "Naughty." His tone was light but the look in his eyes made her feel hot all over. "I like that."

She grinned back at him, already aware she'd never last long in paradise. "Honey, you have no idea."

That actually got a groan and he drummed his hands on the table before standing. "I'm going to tinker or something in the work room. I bought you some books to entertain you. Still a couple hours until we land."

"Sounds good. Go."

*

He'd brought the POS Hammersuit with him to tinker on. He was pretty sure it was beyond repair, but it was a long flight to paradise and he bored easily. Pepper could sit and read for hours on these sort of flights. He envied her that. He needed something to do with his hands or he got fidgety.

Wrist deep in metal was the best time to do any sort of real thinking. Tony wasn't exactly known for his introspective nature, but his mind was always working. Right now he was thinking about Pepper and retirement and not-so-ugly ties. 

She really sounded like she meant it this time. Obviously she didn't need the job. And if they were starting what he thought they were starting, then not working together made sense. Still, he really couldn't imagine Stark without Pepper. Pointing her out in the cafeteria had been the best thing he'd ever done.

He'd only done it because he wanted to get into her pants, of course. That was all he'd wanted out of an assistant back then. An old-school fifties style secretary, to type things, fetch lunch, and look pretty in the chair. And let him seduce her, of course. He'd been such a jackass.

A grabby horndog he was not, though, so he respected her space. He did try a couple of times—challenges and all—but she just ignored him. The very last time, she'd turned and looked at him, put her hands on her hips and said, "Mr. Stark, when I was nineteen and hadn't yet discovered proper professional skirt length, I interned at the Clinton White House. Give up."

Of course, that had only made him like her more. Long legs and nice asses were a dime a dozen. Sass like that was rarer then diamonds.

Diamonds. He should buy her some diamonds when they got home. He was still capable of buying things on his own, right?

It really was gratifying to know she'd been tempted, at least. Though really, if Obadiah wasn't already dead, Tony would probably hit him, just on principle.

He inspected the arc reactor on the suit. When he'd been dying, he'd built the suit with its own reactors independent of the one in his chest. So someone else could use it after he was gone. He'd set expectations, and power vacuums were bad. While Jarvis was researching and making reservations, he'd made more of his element—while he still had the set up. They'd need to build a permanent production facility somewhere not in his basement, but it would take time. In the meantime, he could at least upgrade Rhodey's core. Get him flying faster than a fighter jet.

Obadiah and his bribe did make some other things make sense, though. After his procession of bimbo secretaries, he'd been surprised when he looked up Pepper's background and found she had an MBA from Harvard and two thirds of a law degree. An IQ kissing his end of the bell curve and what he'd soon learn were wickedly sharp instincts. She was brilliant and the best sounding board he'd ever known. It baffled him why she'd taken a job as his EA. She could have very easily been the E part all by her self.

Retirement. Who did she think she was kidding? He'd lay even money she wasn't going to make it through this week without some sort of project. Minds like theirs didn't just turn off, vacation or no. Retirement sounded like a certain kind of hell to him. His dad had worked until—

Nope. Not thinking about Dad right now. Plenty of other stuff to think about. Pepper. Pepper in a sarong. Pepper in a bikini. Pepper _out_ of a bikini. See? No time for father issues here.

He sighed and straightened, stretching the knot out of his back. She probably could have walked out on him a dozen times. He should try to be supportive. He could do supportive. Just think "What would Pepper Do?"

"Mr. Stark," the pilot said over the intercom. "We're beginning our descent."

He stood and rubbed at his back like an old man. Then he went back to the main lounge to buckle in. Pepper was plastered to the window, staring at green islands rising out of the turquoise sea. "Where are we?"

"Does it matter?" he asked, sinking into the seat across from her.

She looked up, like she was considering that. Then she smiled and said, "Nope."

Which was good. Because he wasn't entirely sure where they were, actually. Jarvis had presenting him with a bunch of options and he'd chosen by pictures. He hadn't actually paid attention which names went to which pictures. He just picked the best one.

Equipping his planes with rotating thrusters had been one of his better ideas. It meant he could land even the larger one—which they were on now—on any airstrip big enough to handle a Cessna. Did make for a bumpy landing, though.

When the pilot gave them the all clear one of the attendants opened the door and they were greeted with a rush of warm tropical air. Tony felt something unknot between his shoulders. You simply couldn't be stressed out in the tropics. There was a rule.

He got up and offered Pepper his hand. "Vacation starts. . . now."


	4. Chapter 4

They had a secluded, private villa on the end of the island. They had a private butler and every amenity imaginable was available at the main lodge up the beach. Pepper wandered the villa in astonishment. It perched at the edge of rock and jungle, with wooden decks and walkways lining the front, spilling into the white sand and the ocean beyond. Everything was open to the air under soaring, wood-beamed thatched roofs. It had a plunge pool, as if the ocean wasn't enough; outdoor couches, beds and a hammock to lay in around a fire-pit on the deck. An indoor living room and kitchen if it was raining or they felt like cooking.

Plus, of course, a gigantic regular bed, mostly inside, within a massive canopy of draped mosquito netting. Though it was the bathroom beyond that made her stop in her tracks. In the center of the floor was marble bathtub that was less tub and more 'roman bath', but lined with jets and two different hand-held shower-heads. It was better than any of the bathtubs in any of Tony's houses. 

She'd left him down on the lower deck, talking to the butler. When she leaned over the bathroom's balcony—because of course it had one—he was still there, only now there were also two women setting up massage tables behind him. She grinned; he really did know how to show a girl a good time. "Hey!" she called. "Come up here!"

He tipped his head up to look at her, eyes unreadable behind his sun glasses. Then he ducked beneath the balcony and out of her line of sight. A few seconds later she heard his feet on the stairs. "Find something not to your liking?"

"To the contrary." She waited for him to make it all the way to the bathroom. "You could fit _four_ girls in this tub."

His expression when he saw the tub was priceless. He glanced at her. "Is that an option? Because I can make a call—"

She put her hand over his mouth and glared at him. "Unless you want to sleep in it tonight, stop talking."

He kissed her palm. "Yes, ma'am," came the muffled reply.

Pepper lowered her hand. "I'm not unaware that was an opening you could drive a bus through."

"It seems almost mean to not let me say something." He slid his arms around her waist. "Are you ready for a massage out on the lanai?"

She leaned into him. There was a time, really very recently, when he _would_ have had four girls in that tub. She really needed to talk to him about that. Before they took this any further. Which was probably going to be very soon. 

Maybe after the massage.

After the massage (which was so heavenly it redefined the word for her) they took turns rinsing off the oil and sat down to dinner outside by the fire pit. The sun was setting and the staff had lit torches all around the patio to light their meal. Tony was lounging on one of the couches like a Roman senator, stretching out to grab bites of food without sitting up. "So I'm thinking instead of a week we stay forever," he said finally.

"I can't say I'd argue. I don't even know what day it is. And we've only been here a couple of hours."

He popped piece of fruit in his mouth. "Haven't even tried out the ocean."

She tilted her head, listening to the waves she couldn't see. "We do also have a pool." She gestured at it. "It's nicely lit."

He shifted, looking at her more fully. "I don't think my day will be complete if I don't get to see you in a bathing suit."

"Aren't you not supposed to swim right after eating?"

"That's totally a myth."

She smiled. "Fair enough." She leaned forward to kiss him. "Finish your mango. I'm going to go change." He gave her a triumphant grin, and she rolled her eyes.

The staff had unpacked their suitcases for them, so it took her a few minutes to actually find the bathing suits. Two were string bikinis that would have made her pause even when she was 25. The third was a much more substantial, more like a sports bra and boy shorts, clearly meant for water activities. It looked like it would be a pain to get out of. Maybe that would help with her self control.

She chewed her lip for an inordinate amount of time, before finally deciding to put the third one on. It flattened her chest more than she'd like. Well, maybe that would help with his.

By the time she got back outside he was already in his trunks, sitting on the edge of the pool, feet in the water. He had a white undershirt on, his reactor glowing under it, bright in the dim evening light. He looked up when she stepped out of the house and she definitely saw a flicker of disappointment cross his face.

"They were bathing suits for teenagers," she told him. "How's the water?"

"Just perfect," he replied. "Like everything else."

She climbed in, and sank under the water. It was, in fact, perfect. She stretched out, floating on her back in the middle of the pool. This was definitely paradise.

There was a quiet splash and the water rippled as Tony slid into the pool. She felt him catch her ankle and draw her closer to him. When she bumped into him she realized he was still wearing the shirt.

She splashed him. "Is my punishment for the modest suit that I don't get to look at your abs?"

Something odd flickered across his face as he glanced down at the shirt. "I, uh, don't go topless as much as I used to," he said. She could tell he was aiming for a light, casual tone. He failed kind of miserably.

She shifted, standing up on the bottom of the pool and facing him. He was. . . self conscious? That was so unlike him she was momentarily speechless. It felt like one of those threads that would unravel if she pulled on it, but she couldn't tell if that would make it better or worse. Instead, she put her hand over the reactor. "There's nobody here but you and me." 

He gave her his crooked grin, but it looked a little forced. "I know. And, hell, you've had your hand in there so it's not like I can horrify you anymore." He shrugged. "Just out of the habit, I guess." 

She saw his shoulders tighten a little but he reached behind his neck and grabbed the back of the shirt, pulling it over his head. She grinned at that, watching his muscles move. Then she reached forward, putting her hand over the glowing light. She traced her finger around it and he shivered. He'd told her once the skin around was numb about an inch out and felt very weird when touched. "Someone was horrified?" she asked.

There was a pause before he answered. "Yeah. Groupie. Couple weeks after the fight with Obadiah."

"I. . ." she shook her head. "I don't understand people." Maybe she could. She'd been startled when she first saw it, the strange metal glowing thing sticking out of his chest. The day she'd helped him swap units was unabashedly gross, and looking at the open hole was very weird. She'd thought, oddly, about the first time she'd seen her mother's mastectomy scars as a little girl. As an adult she'd wondered how they hadn't bothered her father. Funny that it was Tony who'd made her understand.

Now the reactor was as much part of him now as anything else, and it made her think of the cave he would have died in without it. Men came back from war with far worse injuries than this. 

She looked up at him. "Kept your shirt on after that, huh?"

Another pause, this one a little longer and heavier. No. There was no way—

"I had a phase where I focused on stuff I could do clothed. But I never really. . ." He shrugged. "It's off now, anyway."

Pepper could quite literally feel the universe shifting under her feet. The ground itself had become unstable. The rules of gravity were suspended. "Tony."

He pointed at her. "No, see, that's why I didn't make a thing out of it. 'Cause now you have that face. The 'oh my God it's worse then I thought' face. And it's _not_. I just. . . It was a decision I made." He scrunched his face up like a little boy. "You know how I embarrass easy."

"That is not it at all! I don't think it's worse, I think it's. . ." She threw up her hands. "Do you remember the third time I told you I quit?"

"Yes," he said, though she could see on his face that he didn't. Which was fine. She'd done it nearly annually, and on this particular occasion he had also been pretty drunk. 

"You called me, at 3AM on a tuesday, when we had a big meeting in the morning and I had the flu, and asked me to go buy 'the biggest box of condoms they make' and drive it out to your house. I told you I was sick. You replied, and I quote, 'You can't leave me to raw dog a Chinese hooker.' I told you I quit and hung up." She could see recognition and then embarrassment flaring in his expression.

He looked down at the water. "That was—Yeah, that was a bad one. I'm guessing you were still paying off loans for that one." He risked a glance at her. "I didn't, if it makes you feel any better."

She sighed. "By that point I'd gotten around to. . .to steal from one my favorite movies, 'Tony's bed is Tony's province, he can people it with sheep for all I care'." She laughed at the look on his face. "Be flattered, it's about a great king. Anyway, what you did was none of my business until I was contemplating becoming one of those bedpost notches. Now I. . ." She shrugged. "I've spent all day contemplating how politely to ask when was the last time you had a battery of STD tests."

The crooked grin came back. "I believe it was part of the battery of tests I had coming back from Afghanistan. I'm almost certain you have copies somewhere."

"And that's the last time it was relevant?"

He thought about it, which she found oddly reassuring. She wouldn't have trusted a flip answer. "Yes. I have not engaged in risky behavior—of a sexual nature—since then."

She chuckled at his very specific phrasing. Then she looked down, and reached to trace her fingertips over his abs. The muscles beneath the skin flinched, just a little. She had wanted to that for _years_. She raised her eyes again. "You treat sex like a random bodily function. And it means something to me. It's hard for me to reconcile that."

Old Tony—pre Afghanistan Tony—would probably have argued that it _was_ a bodily function. Current Tony just continued looking uncertain. "Does my recent abstinence help or hinder that?"

It was the uncertainty that got her. He was nervous. He was only ever nervous about things he desperately wanted, and thought he might actually not get. With a guy like him there were vanishingly few things that fell into that category. 

Under the water, she reached and wrapped the floating drawstring of his swim trunks around her finger. "It helps."

His brows arched up and a lot of the nervousness melted out of his expression. "Good. Good. What else can I do to help?" he asked, sliding a hand up her arm.

She stepped a little closer. She gave the drawstring a little tug. "Has it been so long you've forgotten how this goes?"

He chuckled, low and deep in his throat. The sound sent a little shiver through her. "No," he said, cupping her cheek. "I think I remember the basics." He tugged her through the water and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, letting him and the water lift her. Getting lost in it, and him. She'd been careful the night in New York. Holding herself back was more self preservation than anything else—for her heart, and for not letting her libido get ahead of her common sense. Whatever gates she'd had crashed open now. She felt lighter. Freer. Terrified. Drunk on a decade's worth of lust.

His hand roamed, down her neck and along the curve of her hip, exploring her. It skated up her back and flattened against the back of her bathing suit top. After a moment he lifted his head a fraction of an inch to murmur against her mouth, "Are you regretting not wearing the sexy suit yet?"

"Little bit, yeah." She leaned back "Chlorine's bad for the lady parts, we should get out of this pool."

"As the lady wishes." He cupped her waist in his hands and turned, lifting her onto the lip of the pool before vaulting up himself. He stood and offered her a hand to help her up. 

She let him pull her to her feet, and leaned up to kiss him again. "I wish you could fly us up there," she whispered.

He pressed a kiss just below her ear, beard scraping her skin and making her shiver. "I could carry you," he offered. "Like Gone With the Wind."

She closed her eyes, having trouble focusing. She stroked her hands up his damp back. "Isn't there a bed out here somewhere?"

The kisses started to wander down her neck. "There's several. Also a hammock, but I'm pretty sure I'm too old to attempt that."

She turned her head to peer into the darkness beyond the torches where she thought the bed was. "You've got a built-in flashlight, let's go find it." 

He chuckled and in a surprisingly fast move, scooped her up into his arms and carried her back towards the villa. "Tell me if you spot it," he told her.

She leaned in and nibbled in his earlobe, too distracted to pay attention to their surroundings. "Mmhmm." His arms tightened on her a little and he seemed to concentrate very hard on walking. Then she was being lowered onto a very soft mattress and his mouth had found hers again in a hot, heady kiss.

It was dark and she could hear the ocean. She arched up, wrapping her arms and legs around him. It didn't take long for him to reach down and tug up the top of her bathing suit. Or try, anyway. It had clearly been designed to stay on while, say, surfing, and was not going to yield to his one hand, especially since it was wet. He managed to get it partially up, until it got stuck painfully on the fullest part of her breasts. She crossed her arms and tried to pull it off herself. It got as far as her armpits before flipping inside out and then getting stuck just past her shoulders. Now she couldn't move her arms and it was over her face. She could feel him shaking with laughter, so much so he rolled off her. 

She sat up, hoping that would help, but it was hard to grab it anymore. Hard to get out of, indeed. "Stop laughing, I'm trapped in this thing." She should probably stop laughing, too.

"Just give me a second to get my phone and a knife and I'll help you," he said, voice just barely holding the laughter at bay. She felt his hands grab the suit and yank up. 

It caught her chin and flipped up her earlobes painfully. He threw it—with quite a bit of force—in the direction of the ocean. "Hey!"

"Nope. It's gone. It's injured you, it doesn't get any second chances."

She watched his eyes drift down to gaze at her breasts, his expression reminding her of a kid peering in the window of a toy store. The reactor illuminated them in what would otherwise be pitch darkness. It was kind of neat—like a nightlight. "All yours," she said.

The grin got even wider, if possible. But when he bent down again it was to kiss her. He touched her face, stroked her wet hair back behind her ear. Then he slowly made his way down her throat, fingers featherlight, before curling around her breast. He teased his thumb across the nipple. First lightly, then gradually firmer. Her breath came quicker. It was a simple, gentle touch. But it was unbearably erotic. When she thought about this—which she did more than she wanted to admit—she'd always assumed it would be a fast, frantic thing. Not like this.

He paid the other breast the same attention, and when he finally brought his mouth down to it, she gasped. She arched her back as he eased her back down on the bed. He was really very good at this. She probably shouldn't think about that too hard, but it was nice. And he obviously intended to take his time. She buried her hands in his hair as he moved his mouth from one breast to the other.  
 His hands skimmed down her sides to slide into the band of her swimsuit. He cupped her ass with both hands and gave a gentle squeeze, sucking particularly hard on her breast at the same time.

She bucked a little, and then lifted her hips again so he could pull them off. They also went in the direction of the ocean. "What did they ever do to you?"

"They were in my way," he muttered into her skin. "I figured the set should stay together."

"The mermaids don't need bottoms," she commented. Then she felt his hand slide between her legs, over slick, wet, sensitive skin, searching for the right spot. He found it and she forgot how to make words of any kind.

She thought she heard him chuckle a little, the smug one that makes her want to toss a drink in his face. But he was also circling her clit with a surprisingly callused thumb so - just this once - she was willing to let it slide. He lowered his mouth to hers again, swallowing the little sound she made as he found her entrance with his fingers and slid inside. She dug her nails into his arm and rocked up, trying to beg him for more without having to figure out the word thing. Whatever he was doing was dizzyingly, divinely good.

He kept a steady pace with his fingers, counterpointing it with strokes of his thumb. He drove her higher, then twisted his wrist, causing his thumb to press a particular spot and his fingers tapped inside her. For a moment everything stopped. Him, her, the whole world. She hung there for a breathless, endless instant. Then light exploded behind her eyes. She saw stars. She may have seen God. 

She floated back down slowly, from what may have been the most impressive orgasm of her life. Without opening her eyes, she murmured, "I can see your smug smile through my eyelids."

"Honey, I'm pretty sure you can _hear_ my smug smile right now." She could certainly hear it in his voice. Eh, what the hell, he'd earned it.

"If you are still wearing those shorts by the time I muster up the strength to open my eyes, I'm going back inside." The bed shifted immediately, she assumed so he could take the shorts off.

He cursed suddenly. "The condoms are upstairs," he muttered with a level of frustration only a man who had just discovered an impediment to getting some could muster.

She opened her eyes, and sat up when she realized he was putting the shorts back on. She could barely see him now that the light was facing the other way, but she poked his back with her foot. "Stop that. I'm covered." 

He turned a little, enough that she could see some of his face in the blue glow. "You're sure?"

She held out a hand. "Give them to me."

There was a second's hesitation, but he took his foot out of the shorts and handed them over. She took them from him and tossed them right over the railing where she could hear the waves. The look on his face was priceless.

"I don't know what I expected," he finally muttered before joining her on the bed again. He stroked his fingers through her hair and drew her in for a kiss. "You're gorgeous," he muttered against her mouth.

"So are you," she replied, her voice just as quiet. She pressed close enough to him that the light nearly disappeared, pressed between them. The kiss got deeper, hotter. She reached between them to wrap her fingers around his cock. It seemed to electrify him, and he rolled her onto her back, coming down on top of her. The metal rim of the reactor thunked hard into her sternum.

"Ow."

He pushed up, off of her. "Shit. Sorry. You all right?"

"It hurt a little. You're going to have to throw yourself over the side."

"No way in hell. Here." He rolled, holding her waist so she went with him, draped on top of him. "Oh, much better."

She pushed up on her hands and looked down at him. "Better." She contemplated tormenting him a bit; she certainly had the ammunition, but his eyes were desperate. She lifted up, and looked down so she could guide him into her. She groaned as she sank downward and he filled her, stretched her. "Jesus. That light is handy."

"I'm going to remind you of that if you roll over in the middle of the night and it wakes you up." Only Tony could be flip at a time like this. His voice was awfully tight, though.

She rolled her hips, sliding against him, feeling heat and tension and pleasure gathering in her again. "I'll put electrical tape on. Like those blue LEDs that. . . that. . ." She lost the train of thought. She didn't care.

He cupped her waist, bracing her as she moved. Occasionally he stroked his hands down her thighs, then back up. They wandered up to cup her breasts, teasing her as she moved. She got lost in it, enjoying the slow build and the feel of him inside her. She felt his fingers dig into her hips, urging her faster. He thrust up to her now. When she leaned forward to kiss him, it changed the angle, and suddenly every clicked and twisted, and she felt it bubbling up again. Different than before-- slower, gentler, enough she could open her eyes and meet his just as the climax took her. 

He held her gaze as she rode it out. He even held it as he took his last few thrusts and found his own release. He buried himself inside her, groaning, as the heat of it spread through her. It was an intensely intimate moment, more so than just the sex itself. For a moment they just breathed. Then she lifted one hand and spread her fingers on his cheek, feeling an odd sense of wonderment. "Hi," she whispered.

He grinned and it wasn't even a little smug. "Hi there."

She ruffled his hair. "Was it worth the wait?"

He was rubbing little circles on her back. "Definitely, yeah."

She kissed him, and then climbed off so she could stretch out beside him. "I totally understand all the gushing all those women did."

He laughed, wrapping his arm around her to hold her to him. "They gushed? To you?"

"Yep. As I was showing them the door. Many were nice. Some I felt sorry for, some were nasty. Often, those were my favorites."

His hand was stroking her skin again, up and down her arm. "Were you nasty back?"

"I told one of them that tomorrow you would only take the calls of one of us, and it wasn't her. Another one I told it was my job to take out the trash."

She felt as much as heard him chuckle and he kissed the top of her head. "That's my girl."

She listened to the steady beat of his heart, the nearly imperceptible hum of the reactor. This one had a slightly different sound than the other one. It was oddly soothing. "I suppose I am, now, aren't I?"

"Damn right. For as long as you want to be."

She closed her eyes, lulled by the waves and the delicious, bone-deep lethargy that followed two orgasms in a row. "If this is what the sex is like, Tony, I'm sold."


	5. Chapter 5

Tony wasn’t sure how many timezones they'd crossed, but it was enough they fell asleep and stayed asleep, at least until dawn. Well, it was sort of dawn. The sky was just turning pink over the ocean. They were kind of naked and outside, but it was warm out, and Pepper was warm and spooned against him, so it didn't seem like a problem.

"Morning," she murmured. Apparently she was awake.

He kissed her shoulder. "It's only technically morning."

"Mmm. Are you awake?"

"Nope. Talking in my sleep."

She nestled her ass rather delightfully closer against him. "Part of you is awake."

He dropped another kiss on her skin. "Well, that part is always awake when a beautiful girl is around."

She didn't protest when his hands went wandering. "You've known me a lot of years, however did you function?"

"I have rock solid self control and an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball statistics." He cupped one of her breasts in his palm. He liked how they fit perfectly in his hand. Like they were made that way. He could get used to this.

She sighed extravagantly. "Well, I suppose since I tossed your clothing in the ocean, I can't make you walk back to the villa like that."

"Mmm." He teased her nipple and smiled to himself as it tightened and the skin warmed under his hand. "It would be needlessly cruel of you."

She opened her legs a little, making space for him to slide inside her. It was slow, the position not giving much space to move. But he could touch her all he wanted, and in the end he made her beg, and made her scream.

He held her tight against him as he shuddered his own release, kissing her shoulder and the back of her neck as she calmed. "That is the best way to wake up," he informed her.

"Yes," she breathed. "This trip was a wonderful idea."

Someday she'd learn all his ideas were wonderful, if she'd just give them a chance. He squeezed her. "When you recover use of your legs we should go in and get dressed. Think about breakfast."

She stretched and sat up. "The sun is really up." She looked around. "I hope no one can see us."

He was never going to get tired of looking at her. "I was pretty adamant about it being private as hell."

She peered over the railing of the platform they were on. "Our suits are on the rocks down there. Not that I want to climb down there while naked." She stood up and stretched thoroughly. It might have even been a yoga move. Whatever it was, he liked it. She looked remarkably comfortable walking around naked. "Come on. I'm starving."

He stood with his own far less graceful stretch and took her hand, leading her into the villa. "So, lounging around and sex for today's agenda?"

"I was thinking about putting on a tiny bikini and swimming in the ocean. There's also the tub."

"That will certainly add entertainment to my heavy duty lounging."

He followed her as he sauntered back to the house. She was walking too slowly, but the view was nice. They went all the way up to the bedroom. He considered looping his arm around her waist and tossing her onto _that_ bed, but he was hungry, and she was rooting around in the drawers. 

Finding his own shorts and t-shirt took about thirty seconds. She was still digging so he stole the bathroom first, washing his face and brushing teeth before heading back into the bedroom. Pepper had slipped into a bright blue sundress that had surely been the best money he had ever spent. He could see the ties of one of the bikinis beneath it as she passed him to switch in the bathroom. She ran her fingertips along his arm as she went by. "French toast," she told him.

He stole a kiss before she closed the door. "All you can eat," he promised.

The staff has stocked the kitchen on his instructions. They had a lovely restaurant, and would being meals to the villa if requested-- as they had for dinner. But he liked privacy, and he liked to cook. It really was just tinkering, only with foodstuffs. He found all the pieces he needed for French toast and started putting it together, heating the griddle up as he mixed the custard. After a moment he realized he was humming as he worked. Well, what the hell. It had been a good day.

The first batch was warming in the oven when she made her way downstairs. "Bacon or sausage on the side?" he asked, pouring her a cup of coffee with flair.

"Sausage." She sat at the breakfast bar, leaning over to take the coffee from him. "Something odd I noticed."

"Just one odd thing?"

"Well, I suppose I could make a list. The bed's got mosquito netting, so clearly it's at least somewhat of a thing. Or some kind of bug. Last night we slept outside half stuck in the trees, no net, with a rather hypnotic light on. No bugs. I'd know, they love me."

He tossed sausage patties on the griddle. "I had all blood sucking bugs on the island killed before we got here. For you."

"I'm serious. I think you repel mosquitos."

He pointed at her with his spatula. "I'm adding that to my list of superpowers."

"And you don't even need the suit." She paused. "Do you have any superpowers without the suit?"

"I think you witnessed one of them last night," he told her, putting a steaming plate of french toast in front of her.

She rolled her eyes. "I walked into that." She took a bite of the french toast and moaned a little.

He leaned on the counter and watched her eat a moment, smiling. "I think my brain counts as a superpower," he said finally. "I'm told most people can't make elements in their basement."

"I hear that's an inheritable superpower." She said around a mouthful of food. "Shame you don't have siblings. You could take over the world."

He'd always kind of wanted siblings. Someone to grow up with. His father had been in his fifties when Tony was born, and hadn't adapted well to the disruption a child brought. Probably why there weren't any more.

"But would it be for good or evil?" was all he said. "That's the question."

She laughed, and ate her breakfast for a bit, while he finished up his own. Eventually she said, "I didn't intend for last night to happen."

He looked up at her, startled. "You didn't? Because I don't remember hearing you protest and—"

She held up her hands. "Hey, hey. I didn't say I didn't want to."

Air left him in a rush. "Good. Okay." He took a swig of coffee. "So did you not intend to do it last night? Or were you planning to make it the whole week?"

"I put on that chastity belt of a bathing suit for a reason. Part of me is still mad at you. And now I'm all sex-drunk—as I figured I would be—and all we're going to do is lay around for a week and pretend this is some kind of honeymoon. Sex, sleep, and rich food. Which is really all I _want_ to do right now."

"But you're still mad," he ventured. "And that's probably gonna come back to bite me."

"It'll still be there when we get home. Bubbling back up." She looked around. "In times of joy and plenty, like right now, you're the best boyfriend a woman could ask for. In times of stress you're a jerk. Enough stress and you get all the way to asshole, apparently. I suppose I was hoping to be able to see with clear eyes a little longer. Figure out how this is going to go. Back off if I thought I needed to. I knew once we. . ." She waved her hand around. "You would then be irresistible." 

He was starting to wish he'd brought something he could put in this coffee. He'd left the liquor back in the States. Like a peace offering. And to prove something to both of them. "Do you want me to be less awesome? Maybe sleep in separate beds?"

"No," she said softly. She looked up at him. "After the dry spell you've had, that would be evil."

"And you are not evil. You are pure and good and patient." She gave him the smile that meant she knew he was being cute on purpose and wasn't falling for it. He sighed. "I was an asshole. I know. And I am sorry."

"I forgive you," she said. "I always do."

"But you're still mad?"

"It's not really that. It's not the incident. It's the pattern, you know?" She pushed the last couple of pieces of toast around her plate. "Relationships can be hard. The real ones, anyway. My mother was sick most of my childhood. We were always broke. I don't know how they handled it. But I know it was hard." 

He came around the counter to sit next to her. She'd never talked much about her family as far as he could recall. Admittedly, he didn't have the best memory for casual conversation but he'd like to believe he'd remember that. "They stayed together?"

She nodded. "Well. Mom died when I was thirteen. Daddy crawled into a bottle and stayed there until it took him to see her again."

Tony reached out to touch her hand, then slid his fingers between hers when she didn't pull away. "I'm sorry, Pepper."

"Thanks," she said. She put her other hand over their joined two. "I know you're well familiar with being an orphan."

"Sometimes it felt that way even when they were alive." He lifted a shoulder. "Dad wasn't the warm and fuzzy type."

"That I did know." She paused. "You never talk about your mother."

He smiled a little, despite himself. "Maria Stark. Quiet, mousy kind of woman. When I was a kid I never really got the two of them. He just seemed to run ragged over her. And I didn't know why he married her. I mean, from what I hear he was a hound dog of the highest order. Gave me a run for my money and this was in the forties and fifties. When I was a little older I started to notice the little things, you know? She'd take his shoes off and tuck a blanket around him when he passed out on the couch. Or he'd bring her something. Just out of the blue. I remember once it was a new hat. And apparently he'd brought her the same hat two weeks before. But she just smiled and wore it the next time they went out." He gave her a crooked smile. "If she'd been allergic to strawberries I'm sure he'd have brought them to her."

She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. "She took care of him."

"Yeah, you could say that. And he, in turn, expressed his love through material goods."

"I won't need stuff, Tony," she said quietly. "I'll need someone to take care of me, too."

He stroked her hair back with his hand. "I can take care of you."

She looked at him, her eyes searching his face. "If I got sick, you wouldn't hide in your workshop because you couldn't face it?"

"If _you_ were sick." He tilted his head, considering. "I think I'd do some hovering. Some desperately trying to fix it. Maybe a little hiding." He squeezed her hand. "I think I'd want to be with you as much as I could."

She looked down at their joined hands. "So would I."

"Can't promise I'd handle the aftermath any better then Mr. Potts, though."

"If we had kids I sure hope you'd try to." She made a face. "Not that we'll—" She rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry. This is really morbid. And now getting out of scope." She looked pack up at him. "You want to go for a swim?"

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I would love a swim."

She finished her coffee, and then hopped off the stool and started towards the beach. She pulled the dress over her head as she went, revealing a small red bikini. He admired the view, and stood up slowly. Kids. That was a heavy topic. It expected it to horrify him. But for some reason kids with Pepper didn't seem quite as scary as it should have.

He took a second to toss the dishes in the sink, then followed her out to the water.

*

They floated the rest of the day in their honeymoon haze. Sand, sun, swimming and sex. They took a nap in the hammock in the afternoon. Tony did, anyway. Pepper drifted, turning thoughts over in her head. He thought when he was busy. She thought when she was still. She didn't remember the last time she'd talked about her parents. It was an old wound, and she generally wasn't one to pick scabs. She wondered if the way her father had gone was what made her so mad about Tony's self-destructive tendencies. The two of them were just a mess of Daddy issues, weren't they?

Maybe they fit.

She shifted a little to look at him, to watch him sleep. She had some decisions to make soon, to make sure that she didn't end up like her mother. It was going to be too soon, their relationship to new to drag that into it, but the clock ticked. Perhaps she should dig out whatever scotch he'd brought with him.

She frowned, thinking back. Had he?

She hadn't seen him drink on the plane, or smelled it on him. There'd been water and fruit juice at dinner, not even any wine. This morning his coffee had come from the same pot as hers and she hadn't seen him doctor it.

Holy hell, was Tony Stark going cold turkey?

She shook him awake. "Tony."

He startled awake in an extremely ungraceful manner. "What—Why?"

"Did you stop drinking?"

There was a pause while he blinked at her, then he shook his head as if to clear it "I thought I'd take a break."

"Isn't it bad to just stop? Don't people have seizures?" Though, looking back, how much of what had _looked_ uncomfortably like her father's descent into alcoholism could have been the palladium poisoning. 

"That's only if you've been consistently drunk for an extended period of time," he said in a guest-lecturer voice. "I may have been drinking too much but I wasn't quite that bad." He rubbed the back of his head. "No shakes. No DTs."

"Why? I mean, no complaints, you're an obnoxious drunk. And clearly I've got some issues in that area. But why?"

He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "Rhodey pointed out I'd been drinking too much. Figured it was vacation; no suit, no stress." He glanced at her. "Thought you might approve."

"I do." She lifted one of his hands in both of hers and kissed his knuckles. "I do."

"I'm not promising it'll last forever," he warned.

"Hey, I drink wine straight from the bottle."

He disentangled one of his hands so he could point at her. "That's true. You're a terrible influence on me."

He was joking again, but she was grateful. Because he'd done it and because he seemed fine. She leaned in to kiss him. "I was just thinking I felt acrobatic. You sure we can't do it in this hammock?"

His eyebrows went up. "Only one way to find out, right?"

She leaned forward to kiss him. The hammock began to sway—but it wasn't from them. She lifted her head in surprise. The trees were swaying, as was everything else. The deck chairs danced and water sloshed out of the pool. "Is that—?"

Tony sat up, watching the trees. "Earthquake," he confirmed, sounding grim. "At least we don't have anything to duck and cover for."

Something inside the villa crashed, and gave the sound of glass breaking and wood creaking. The hammock swung violently, almost dumping them out of it. Something from the second floor lanai flew off and landed in the pool. He cursed and grabbed her hand, somehow getting them both off the hammock. He dragged her down the path, away from the villa, and out to open space where it was less likely they would get hit by debris. He locked an arm around her waist, holding her steady as the tremors slowed and tapered off.

Slowly she blew out a breath. Her hands were shaking. "That was. . . long." 

He was squinting out at the water in a way that made her nervous. "High magnitude," he muttered and she wasn't sure if he was agreeing with her or talking to himself.

She looked up at the villa. "You think it's safe to go in there? Should we go up to the main lodge?" Tony was still looking at the water. "What?"

His gaze flickered to her face briefly, then back to the water. "Earthquake like that, out here in the Pacific, a lot of times it's more under water then on land." He turned and looked at the villa and she could see in his expression he was calculating something. "Go in and get yourself some sturdier clothes."

She looked at the ocean. Oh. That. "Like the one that killed a hundred thousand people?"

"Hopefully not that bad. But, yeah. Like that."

"I'll bring you some shoes," she said, and turned back to the villa. The stairs looked steady—the building didn't seem in any way structurally altered. She went up gingerly, and managed to find shorts and a tank top. She grabbed the one long sleeved shirt she seemed to have and tied it around her waist. She thought her shoe options were flip-flops or heels, until she found reef shoes. They were a little big but better than flip-flops. She grabbed the running shoes he'd flown in and shoved extra socks in her pockets, and went back downstairs.

He met her at the pool and took the shoes from her, slipping them on. "So, don't get mad. But I kind of have a suit here."

She stared at him. "You said no suit!"

"It's Rhodey's Hammersuit. The trashed one. I just brought it to tinker with on the plane when I was bored. But it's functional and there's probably a tsunami coming out way so don't be mad."

"Iron Man can't stop a tsunami. It's a giant wave. I can't believe you brought a suit."

"Iron Man can save people from a tsunami, which is more than Tony Stark can do without a suit." He spread his hands, shoulders hunching. "It was just to work on. I wasn't even going to take it off the plane."

She sighed. This was the rest of her life, right here. "Is it still on the plane?"

He took her hand and tugged her down the path they'd walked just the day before. "Yes and that's where we should be."

The airstrip wasn't far. It wasn't big, and it was old—probably built by someone during WW2. It stuck out a little off the end of the island,though that end had crumbled into the sea now, probably being built on fill. The jet still stood there, off to the side, wings up like a fighter jet to conserve space. He had to boost her up so she could open the door, and then he climbed up himself. He gave her a smacking kiss and disappeared into the back. She could already hear him talking to Jarvis. 

"Hey, come back here, I need help," he called. 

She should have just let him bring the suitcase suit. That would have been easier. It was her own fault she ended up crouched down screwing metal pieces on him while he provided terse instructions and Jarvis protesting using it at all over the speakers.

"Jarvis, you're like a mother hen," Tony snapped, finally. "I'm not taking down F-16s I'm getting Pepper and me to safety and doing any rescue work that comes up. No, honey, that's for the other leg."

She couldn't tell any of the pieces apart. "I'm doing the best that I can." She put it on the other leg, and when she stood he had nearly all of the top on. 

"I'm good. I got it," he said. 

She turned and looked out the plane's window. On the beach beyond, the ocean had begun to recede. "Tony."

"Yeah, I see it. Jarvis, is there anything resembling high ground on this rock?"

"The the hill in the center of the island should be high enough. There are staff quarters up there. I can't tell the condition until the satellite comes around again. Ten minutes."

He looked out the window. "Yeah, I'm guessing that'll be three minutes too late." When he turned back to her he was smiling but it looked a little forced. "You ready for your personal flight?"

"It's practically routine," she said with a cheer she didn't feel. She kissed him before he brought the faceplate down. The circle on his chest flared bright white and he reached for her, scooping her up. He stepped out onto the wing of the plane and took off, shooting into the sky before pointing them towards the center of the island. She peered over his shoulder and in the far distance, out on the water, she could see the wave, dark and looming. It looked like it was gliding across the top of the water, rather then a part of it.

_Jesus._ She couldn't stop staring at it. She'd thought it would look like the giant winter waves in Hawaii, curving into a roll as it crashed. But it was moving wall of smooth water. 

Suddenly they dropped, fast enough her stomach flipped. She could see a clearing, and building. People milling around. Tony hit the ground with a thump, said, "Stay here," and then shot back up like a rocket. Momentum got the better of her and she fell on her ass as she watched him lift off.

Yeah, he'd brought a suit. And it was still a magnificent sight to see.


	6. Chapter 6

"Jarvis! Where's my satellite?"

"Two minutes, sir," the perfect British voice came back. "There are two on the beach below you."

It was a couple, looking at the wave like dumbfounded idiots. "Yeah, I see them. I need the people I can't see." The water was rising rapidly on the far end of the island as the front edge of the wave was coming in. He dipped down and scooped up the very surprised idiots, depositing them on the top of a palm tree. "Hang on tight, I'll be right back."

This had pretty much been the last eight minutes. He'd dropped Pepper off and had started darting around the island, grabbing stragglers and hauling them to high ground. Most of the staff had been close enough just a warning to move ass had gotten them moving. The guests, on the other hand, were proving to be a bigger challenge. The general manager had managed to give him a rough head count when he'd flown her up from one of the more far flung villas. By that count he was still missing a dozen people and the water wasn't going to wait for the satellite to line up.

He spotted a family, running from the villa to the main lodge and swept down to at least get them to drop their luggage. What was the _matter_ with people? 

At the far end, he could see the water lifting his plane and tossing it into the trees. He found another two people climbing the roof of the spa building as the wave made it's way around the island.

"I've got satellite sir. There are four of them in the water."

Tony cursed and went high so he could get the full 360. Jarvis fed him coordinates and his HUD flashed, zeroing in on the one farthest from shore. His boosters flared and he was off.

It took two trips because one of them was unconscious. Jarvis found a fifth one, who turned out to be dead. He got the couple out of the tree, and then Jarvis found him another one in different tree.

He was still two short, but the repulsor under his left foot was starting to sputter, making stable altitude hard.

"I don't see any more, sir, and the suit seems to be damaged."

"Yeah, that had come to my attention, too." There came a time when even Tony Stark had to admit he'd done everything he could. Besides, Pepper was waiting and probably worried and would need his big manly arms around her for comfort. Yeah, that was good. He was going to tell himself that.

The suit made it to the hilltop he'd left her on, but just barely, and his landing was nothing to write home about. He hated this suit more then he'd hated any inorganic thing in his life but now he was going to have to keep it around for nostalgia. He pulled the faceplate off and scanned the crowd for red hair.

She came out of the building—it was squat and old, but looked like it had held up okay—with the resort's manager following her. Pepper pointed at another group of people and the manager nodded and dashed off. Then Pepper stopped next to someone else who looked to be organizing supplies. Two people went past with a makeshift stretcher. 

The crowd, as it turned out, was not milling. She had organized it.

_That's my girl._ The thought came with a wave of pride that stopped him in his tracks. Really, he could save a thousand lives. A million. He could save the world and he was never, ever going to deserve that woman.

He caught her eye when he could finally move again, meeting her by the supply pile. "Hey. I think I got them all. Suit's fried."

Her face lit up, and she braced herself on him so she could go on her toes and kiss him. He could taste fear and relief. Around them, people began to applaud. He grinned when she leaned back and was relieved when she returned it. "I"m going to find a corner to peel this off and then you can put me to work," he told her.

He could see something flare in her eyes. He might describe it as lust mixed with guilt. "Do you need help?"

"I think I got it. I'll yell loud and hobble back to you if I get stuck."

She kissed him again, lingering a little longer than she should, and then sent him on his way.

*

She has supplies organized, the injured being tended to. The manager, Jun, had told her they needed to stay up there a couple of hours before venturing down to look at the damage. She hoped they found water; the island's power and small desalinization apparatus were both out. Someone was also going to need to get over to the air tower—assuming it was standing—and call for help. Unless. . .

"Hey, Tony?" she called.

He jogged over from where he'd been helping set up makeshift tents and beds. True to his word, he'd dismantled the suit, and had gotten to work on whatever task she'd told him needed doing. "Whatcha got?" he asked when he reached her side.

"You still have Jarvis?"

He shook his head. "I lost him while getting it off. S.O.S. already went out, though. We're not about to become an episode of Lost. Could be a day or two, though."

"That'll do." She smiled, and rubbed the back of her neck. "It's good when you think of the one thing I forgot." 

He reached up and cupped her neck, then slid his hand down to dig into the muscles of her shoulder. "It's why we're such a good team."

"Mmm. Thank you." She looked up at him. "Some vacation, huh?"

"We did have that one day," he said. "That'll hold us a few years, right?"

"I really wanted to use that tub." She stretched. "Pretty soon we're going to need someone to hike down and assess the situation down there. Lack of water is going to be a problem soon. Lack of light and power may be a problem at night." 

She watched the gears turn in his head as he surveyed the group. Gears probably wasn't the right term. Tony's mind moved far quicker the clockwork. "I can take a few guys down once Jun gives us the okay. They have to have a generator or something here, right?"

"Nope. Power came from a central generator down at sea level." She turned and pointed. "They have reserve in the water tower up there. Gravity fed, but it's not potable. Each building has a purification unit, so there's one here. . . but again, it needs power. That generator has got to be ruined, if not swept away."

"Damn," he said, almost conversationally. He looked up at the tower she'd pointed to and started doing the weird snap-fist-clap thing he did sometimes when he was working through a real problem.

All right. He was on the problem and was the smartest person she knew. "Good. Chew on that. I'm going to go check on the injured." He nodded, distracted, but gave her shoulder a little squeeze before she walked off.

He found her about ten minutes later, announcing himself with a loud, "I'm an idiot!"

She was in the middle of changing a dressing on someone's sliced up leg, and didn't look up. "Every once in a while," she murmured around the pair of embroidery scissors she was holding in her teeth.

"We need power, right? Power will solve our problems? I have a suit! We have more power then this island could ever use."

She looked up. "Don't you kind of need its power source to remain in your chest? You going to wire yourself to the building?"

He waved a dismissive hand that usually pissed her off but he was on a roll so she let it slide. "The Hammersuit I got from Rhodey, it's got a built in reactor. I wanted to build them with independent power, so people who weren't me could use it. The thrusters are failing but the power was over seventy percent."

She loved how excited he looked. It was almost mesmerizing, despite how terrible she felt at the moment. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"It's no fun doing this sort of thing if I don't have someone look impressed when I figure it out."

"I am impressed, and I will reward you in ways that are inappropriate to discuss in public. _Go._ "

He gave a little salute, then a bow before hurrying off, calling to a couple of workers to get them to come help him fetch the suit.

Less than an hour later, they had power and clean water. He took a team down to explore the wreckage of the island below, and she busied herself with making sure everyone had something to eat and somewhere to sleep. An aftershock rumbled through, small but enough to unsettle. By the time the sun began to set, she was exhausted all the way down to her bones. She needed to find something to eat, somewhere for them to sleep, and to figure out where Tony had gotten off to.

She was just working up the energy to go hunt for one of those things (no, really, any minute now) when he appeared at her elbow with a plate of rice and stew and a sport bottle full of water. "Eat," he ordered her, in the exact same tone she usually used on him.

She took it without complaint. It tasted better than anything from a gourmet restaurant. Of course, they actually had the resort's chef and cooks up here, so maybe it was wonderful and not just because she was hungry. "Thank you."

He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "I found us a place to bunk, when you're ready."

He was, she decided, the most wonderful man in the history of the world. "God, you have no idea."

When she'd wolfed down the food he took the plate from her and led her first to what was passing a a mess hall, then to a tent near the edge of the other bunks. Some people were sleeping in makeshift lean-to’s or just out in the open, but this was a real, proper tent. He pulled the flap back grandly. "Our room."

The bottom was covered in one of the outdoor mattresses from the beachside beds. She sank into while he said something about it washing inland. "I adore you."

He kneeled next to her, tugging the flap clothed. "I think we've both had pretty awesome days."

She looked up at him, reached to rub his shoulders. "I'm sorry I yelled at you about bringing a suit."

He groaned and sank down onto the mattress next to her. "I get to win that argument for the rest of forever."

"I will absolutely agree to that," she said. Then she grabbed the front of his shirt to pull him to her, so she could kiss him. He groaned, his arms sliding around her to tug her close. It was his A game kiss and told her today had been as rough on him as it had on her. They sank down onto the mattress, and he managed to catch himself so he didn't hit her with the reactor. They were both exhausted and filthy and bruised, but she didn't want to stop kissing him.

He braced himself on his elbow, fingers tangling in her hair. Eventually the kisses trailed down her jaw and throat until he nuzzled the spot where her shoulder met her throat.

She sighed, stroking his back. "We shouldn't," she murmured.

"Mmm. I suppose this isn't quite as private as it was last night."

"Yeah. You ever seen people in a tent with a lantern inside it?"

His hand drifted down to cup her breast. "You don't feel the good people here haven't earned a little entertainment?"

"If this island had cell service, the pictures would be on the internet before sunrise." She probably should swat his hand away, but it felt good.

"The money the tabloids would pay would cover repairs here," he murmured, kissing below her ear.

She closed her eyes. "It feels wrong to be turned on in the middle of a natural disaster."

Another kiss, then the light tug of his teeth on her earlobe. "Natural disaster we totally rocked."

He was really not helping. "Tony."

"I'm sorry, were you serious about the we shouldn't do this?" She could _feel_ the smirk on her skin. It made his beard tickle her throat.

"I think the dry spell is clouding your judgement. You really want to stage an x-rated shadow puppet show?" 

His sigh was epic in its drama. "I suppose not." He leaned up to kiss her once more before shifting onto his side.

She reached up to touch his face. He had a small scrape over his eyebrow she probably should have cleaned. "I'm sorry. I did start it. It was an irrepressible urge."

He kissed her palm. "I'm irresistible. I know."

"You did good today," she said. "And not one gun involved."

"Shooting the water seemed fruitless."

Pepper laughed. She had no idea where he found the energy to be humorous, but she supposed it was one of his ways of dealing with things. It wasn't how she handled a near brush with death, of course, but she'd take this over the alternative. She tucked her arm under her head. "You owe me a rain check."

He stretched out on his back, hands folded over his chest. "Maybe somewhere in the Caribbean. After hurricane season." He sighed, then grinned. "Maybe I'll buy an island."

"I want an exact replica of that tub." The tent ceiling was low enough the light shined on it. Absently she reached her hand out and made a shadow puppet of an rabbit.

He laughed out loud and lifted his own, making a bird. "Honey, I'm calling the builders to get a replica put in the Malibu house."

"I will reward you copiously for that." 

"Consider it done, then."

She rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. "I wish we'd had more time."

His arms slipped under her, hugging her to him. "We have lots of time," he said quietly. "Lots more time for vacations and disasters and fights. Think what a story this'll be for the grandkids."

The calm, serious way he said that made it hit her right in the heart. "You want them?"

He rested his chin on her head a moment. "The idea is growing on me." Which was positively starting a baby registry coming from Tony Stark.

Funny that it was a topic she thought she'd mostly put away. Picking at scabs was dangerous. "I'd have thought not. You're childhood was kinda fucked up." She winced. "Sorry, was that too honest?"

"No, no, let's be honest. This can be the honesty tent." He lifted a hand and waved it to indicate the space. "My childhood had its fucked up moments. But there was good, too." He paused and she heard him swallow. "There was more to Dad then I saw."

She ruffled his hair. "The element?"

"That. And. . . I watched some outtakes of an old PR video he did. He had some nice things to say about me. Said he was limited by the technology of his time but I - I could see it through. I wasn't even ten years old and the guy thought I was gonna change the world."

She shifted, resting her chin on her hand to look at him. "I'm pretty sure you have."

"I like to think so." He paused, still staring at the tent ceiling. "Before. When I found out I was sick. That reassured me. That at least my mark on the world would be something other than death. But I was still a little. . . disappointed that I didn't have anyone to hand it down to. No one to carry on the legacy."

She watched him. She took a couple of deep breaths. "What if we couldn't?"

"I will grow them in the lab," he replied, completely deadpan.

She sat up, crossing her legs under her. "Tony, I'm serious."

He looked over at her. "You think it's a likelihood?"

She scrunched up her face. "I'm sorry. I wasn't going to say anything. It's kind of a heavy thing for a relationship that is, I think, four days old. Depending on what day it is, since I'm not really sure."

"When have we ever done anything like normal people? We're in the honesty tent. Just tell me."

She opened her eyes and looked at him, and took another breath. She hated talking about this, but she'd started it. "I carry one of the breast cancer genes. The worse one, actually. My mom was 44 when she died. My grandmother about a decade older, if that. Two aunts, too. Gets murky further back, people didn't talk about it. But none of the women in my family seem to make it to social security."

HIs hand landed on her knee, big and warm and comforting. He gave her a little squeeze. "There's new treatment now. Even preventative measures, if you wanted to go that route."

"I know. I've spec'd it out. They've told me it needs to be soon. Ish."

She could see him processing in the dim light. "I guess the question is what do you want to do? About kids?"

She wasn't sure how comfortable Tony was talking about lady parts. He seemed like the kind of guy who wasn't. "It's not just the, uh, girls." She gestured at her chest. "They need to take out some of the key parts of the baby making apparatus."

A nod. "Ah." More processing. Usually Tony thinking this much made her nervous but it was kind of gratifying to know he was taking it seriously. "So adoption or surrogacy."

"As far as I know I could still carry them. Just can't make them."

"Well, that's plenty to work with. So, comes to that, we survey our options and rank them in order of preference."

He was so matter of fact about that it surprised a laugh out of her. "Just like that?"

The hand on her knee squeezed. "I don't imagine it'll be a simple decision. But I am a problem solver. I like problems with multiple solutions."

She put her hand over his and shook her head. "Now I wish I'd told you sooner."

"Someday you'll learn," he said ruefully.

She looked back up at him. They _were_ in the honesty tent. "You haven't always had much room for problems that aren't your own," she said, as gently as she could.

His fingers tapped a little rhythm on her knee. "You have a point. But I like other people’s problems. They distract me from my own."

Pepper frowned. "That. . ." She shook her head, actually not entirely sure what to say. He was, of course, the most self-interested person she knew. It was going to come out now and again. 

"It's like when I'm stuck on something and I go work on a car," he tried to explain. "Working on something different sometimes gives me a breakthrough on the other. Like in mystery shows when the main character has a seemingly innocuous conversation with a side character and solves the main mystery because of it."

"Not all problems are math puzzle. Sometimes people tell you things because they think you'd care, and not just in the context of how it benefits you."

He glanced over at her. "I always care, Pepper. I'm just terrible at expressing it."

She sighed. "Expressing it can matter sometimes. We're not all as smart as you and none of us read minds."

"I'm trying to work on that," he said quietly. "Dad was always cold and I had to find out from a film strip what he really thought of me. I don't want to be like that. But it's a lifetime of habit to fight against."

"I know," she said, because she did. She leaned over to him, so she could hug him. "I'll be here to help. And call you on your shit." 

His arms came around her, squeezing her tight. "Thank you, I appreciate that," he said, voice muffled in her hair. She crawled into his lap, just holding on for a moment. He rubbed her back, then gave her a pat. "Let's get some sleep, huh? Tomorrow's going to be a long day."

Wasn't that the truth. She could now add a little emotional exhaustion to the physical and mental one. But she didn't want to sleep. Not yet. "There was one other thing."

He tried to stifle a sigh, but kind of failed, and said, "Yeah?"

"I was thinking if we had our bodies close enough together, it would probably blot out the light."

A grin split his face and he curled his hand behind her head to draw her in for a kiss. "You," he murmured. "Are a genius."


	7. Chapter 7

Pepper wasn't in the tent when he woke up in the morning. He had a very vague memory of her sliding out from his arms—but the day before had been pretty taxing. Clearly he needed his sleep. He got up, thought fondly of the shower he could not have, and then went in search of her. 

She was in the mess area, talking to the general manager while eating what looked a whole lot like fried spam. She was wearing shorts and just the top of the bikini. When she turned to wave at him, it was impossible to miss the perfect, ring-shaped bruise between her breasts.

Tony didn't think he'd blushed since he was fourteen, but he came pretty damn close right then. He went over to join them and slid an arm around her waist, dropping a kiss on her temple. "That is the most impressive hickey I've ever made," he muttered in her ear.

She looked down at it. "I wear it with pride." She held up the plate. "Spam?"

He picked up a piece with his fingers and popped it in his mouth. "Thanks."

"You need to make it a padded cap of some sort," she commented. 

"As soon as we get back to civilization I'm taking up sewing," he assured her, stealing more spam. "What's the agenda today?"

"Waiting. I'd like to get the air in the building going, especially for the hurt people. No one here believes it's safe to turn it on. I said the arc reactor could handle it—it powers _Iron Man_ —but since I have no idea how it actually works, I couldn't explain any further."

He nodded, continuing to pick off her plate. If she wanted him to stop she'd have slapped his hand before. "I'll go flip switches. This island doesn't have anything that could task the reactor."

"Thank you." She paused. "You should build one to power your house off of. Get off the grid."

His next bite of spam froze halfway to his mouth and he looked at her, head tilted. "That's an excellent idea."

"You said the new ones are exponentially more powerful." She shrugged. "You could power our vacation island with one. And it'll keep the bugs away, too. Did I tell you they all noticed that?" She waved around. "I pretended I didn't know why. Bug Zapper Man doesn't quite have the same ring to it."

"Well, if the superhero thing doesn't work out it's good to know I have options." He snagged one last bite and kissed her fast. "I'm going to go get the A/C running. Let me know if you need me."

"I will. Have fun," she called after him.

He waved over his shoulder and made his way over to the building. The A/C was hooked into the power grid already so he just did a quick check to make sure it wasn't going to short out. Everything seemed to be working so he got it roaring to life pretty quickly. He took a moment to just appreciate the blast of cold air before wandering outside again.

Power his own building. It was something to think about. He caused a black out at least twice a year and got very nasty letters every time the mercury spiked. Having control of his power grid was very appealing.

He found Pepper, sitting in a circle with four other women and one little girl, all braiding each other's hair. That was. . . not at all a situation that required his involvement. In fact, he was pretty sure testosterone was leaking out of him just by standing near it. So instead he went back behind the building where he'd left the remnants of the suit. The damn thing had a sat phone built into it, maybe he could get it working again.

It took almost an hour (and a lot of really creative cursing) but he finally got it up. And, because he was in trouble, he called Rhodey. Because he always called Rhodey when he was in the shit.

"Hey!" he answered with. "You're not dead."

"I am not. Your crappy Hammersuit saved the day."

"Jarvis alerted us to your situation yesterday. Well, that there was a tsunami and you'd gone offline shortly after reaching safety. A lot of islands in your area were affected, ships from several navies are responding. The wave made it all the way to Hawaii."

Tony sat and leaned against the wall of the building they'd set the suit up outside. "We have about fifty people here, mostly staff of the resort, but a decent number of tourists. I have the suit providing power, but we only have a couple days of food and water. Sooner we get rescued the happier I'll be."

"I'll do the best I can." There was a pause. "My new suit is going to be extra awesome, right?"

"It will be, yeah. Ever hour I don't have to sit here is a new feature."

"Challenge accepted. Let me know if anything goes sideways in the meantime."

"You know you're my first call," he said with a little more emotion then he'd meant to.

There was another pause, and a quiet, "I'm glad you're okay."

Tony smiled and shook his head. "I'm running out of lives at this rate."

"I'm considering not letting you leave the country anymore."

"Oh, I get in just as much trouble at home. It just finds me."

"That's not reassuring. Sit tight, okay?"

"Nothing better to do. See you soon, man."

He disconnected the call. He walked back around until he could see Pepper, still in the circle, her hair looking more elaborate by the minute. 

This was ridiculous. He'd fought supervillans, he could face a braid circle. He wandered over to crouch next to her. "Rhodey is now heading up our rescue effort."

She smiled up at him. "Good. He worries about you more than I do, he'll proceed with all due haste."

"Well, and I bribed him with a fancier suit if he hurries himself up." He leaned over to peer at her hair. "I should get a picture of this."

"Our phones didn't make it, sadly."

The woman braiding her looked to be about 80, but she was native, so it was hard to actually tell. "Almost done, Mrs. Iron Man," she said. Pepper looked up at him and shrugged.

He kissed her temple. "I like that. I'm getting you business cards that say that." Tony helped her up when the woman was done with her hair. Pepper thanked her, and stretched. 

"Something I was thinking about," she said as they walked away, in the direction of their tent.

He slid an arm around her. "Good thinking or honesty tent thinking?"

He was pleased by her smile. "Speculative thinking. I know you were very touchy about the arc reactor, and. . .exploring that technology. I thought you were just being weird but I'm thinking that's actually because it was dangerous and possibly unstable?"

This is why he loved her. Her mind went down the same paths his did. He made a little gun with his fingers and pointed it at her. "That was mostly it. Does me no good to power a farm if it's also poisoning the groundwater."

"Could it? Power a farm?"

The sound he made was half laugh, half snort. "More then one. Like you said, it powers Iron Man. Some equipment and forty-watt bulbs and dishwashers aren't a problem. It would require load testing I haven't done but it could go so far as a small to mid sized town."

"If it repels crop pests that might be a bonus. Though not so much if it repels bees." 

"I can add that to my testing."

"You know, malaria kills half a million people a year, most of them children."

He looked at her. "How do you know that off the top of your head? Why do you have malaria statistics memorized?"

"I have a lot of things memorized." She shrugged. "When you started haphazardly giving away things—like donating all you modern art to the boy scouts, which I am _still_ mad at you about—I did research into worthwhile causes I was going to try pointing you and your money at."

That was so entirely her. He couldn't help giving her a fast kiss. "We're going to be busy when we get home."

She stopped walking to look at him. "We?"

Oh, right. She quit. "You want me to redefine how the country uses power all on my own?" he asked, throwing in some puppy dog eyes for good measure.

She searched his face. "You want to do it together?"

"Of course." There was a doubt? "I work better when you're around."

"You don't share well."

And sometimes she knew him a little too well. "But I'm trying to change, remember? This will be good for me." He touched her hair. "There's no one I'd rather have on my team then you."

"I do have some stuff I need to take care of. It's going to require some time off."

"That's fine. I still plan to spend at least a week doing nothing. Plus the new element needs testing and I need to build a permanent particle accelerator."

"You can't do nothing for a week any better than I can."

"I was hoping we could do nothing together. In bed."

She opened her mouth to reply, and then closed it again. She cocked her head. "You hear that?"

"Your avoidance issues are just sad." Oh, dammit, he did hear something. He tipped his head back to scan the sky. She looked up, turning towards the sound, a faint womp-womp. That was a helicopter. Tony grinned. "Sonovabitch must want a really nice suit."

It came into sight, a big, double-bladed chinook. Pepper began jumping up and down waving her arms, though he was pretty sure that a) their encampment was perfectly visible and b) Rhodey was tracking the suit's GPS anyway.

The other people had started to notice and were getting up and waving as well. Well, it was pretty exciting. They watched it hover over the island a moment before finding a good landing spot west of their camp. "He's going to get a hero complex after this," Tony called to Pepper as it began to descend.

She came over and put her arm around his waist. "You have people that love you."

He pressed a kiss to her temple. "Yes. I do."

*

It was very late, and very dark, when the transport plane they'd been put on touched down at Hickman Air Force Base in Hawaii. That was as far as the military would take them, but a Stark plane would be there in the morning. Pepper still wasn't sure what day it was. Time had both stopped and stretched. All she knew was there was a hotel room waiting for them somewhere on this (delightfully fully civilized) island, and it would contain both a shower and a bed. And possibly some food neither canned nor MRE.

A car met them on base and drove them down to Honolulu, past Waikiki to a hotel near Diamond Head. She wasn't really aware of the check in, but a few minutes later they were in a suite on the top floor with a view of the ocean on two sides.

"Beautiful view, _and_ air conditioning. This is paradise." She turned to look at Tony, who had sprawled on the bed to look at the room service menu. "Thank you. You want the shower first?"

"You can go. I'm going to order half of this menu. And whatever you want."

"The kitchen can't possibly still be open." She held up a hand. "No. I know. You're Tony Stark."

"What would you like? There's fish. Lots of fish."

She turned the shower on. "I think you know what I want."

He lowered the menu to look at her. "Pepper. It's not that kind of menu."

She rolled her eyes. "Chocolate. I want chocolate."

He didn't bother to his his flicker of disappointment. "Oh."

She came close enough to poke him. "Did you want me to want to order escorts from the room service menu?"

There was a pause as he pretended to consider. "I suppose not. That would be weird."

She pointed. "Order me all the chocolate, and then come join me in the shower." She paused, contemplating her level of soreness, and their mutual level of exhaustion. "No, I take that back. Food, shower for both of us, and then we can experience the novelty of sex indoors, in a bed."

He gave a little salute. "I'm going to sign off on that project plan, Ms. Potts."

She kissed him, repeated, "All the chocolate," and turned and went into the bathroom. The shower was delightful, and made her feel much more like a human being-- though she was a little sad to take her fancy braids out. Thankfully in a hotel you could use all the hot water you needed. When she went back out, room service had set up what looked like dinner for five and a desert tray for a wedding on their little table. . . and most of the dresser. There was a little candle flickering and everything. 

Tony was across the foot of the bed, out cold.

Pepper belted her bathrobe and climbed onto the bed. She leaned over and shook him gently. "Honey. You're neglecting your feast."

He groaned. "God, food or sleep. The eternal question."

His eyes were still closed. But she felt bad, she knew he was hungry, and fish wasn't great cold. "I was thinking of taking my shirt off."

The eyebrow went up. "Are you bluffing again?"

She climbed off the bed, took off her bathrobe, and tossed it at him. "Nope."

He groaned and tugged it off his face, sitting up. "I'm up, I'm up."

She put her hands on her hips and watching his eyes roam over her. "No nookie until you eat something."

"You're _mean_ ," he informed her, climbing off the bed to join her near the food.

She put the robe back on while he inspected his dinner options. "I torment you out of love and concern," she told him.

The noise he made didn't indicate he believed her. He selected a plate of Ahi and sank into a chair. "I'm not even going to be able to appreciate this."

She sat and folder her legs under her. There was plenty of chocolate, but protein would do her good, so she picked some sort of crusted whitefish. It was Hawaii, it would all be good, whatever it was. "Whyever not?"

"I'm too tired and too hungry. It will be both utterly tasteless and the best thing I ever ate."

She got up and came around to rub his shoulders. She kissed the top of his head. "Would it help if I took the robe off again?"

"There is nothing you can't fix by taking your robe off."

She leaned down to kiss his cheek, then went to turn the air conditioner to a warmer temperature. Then she tossed the robe on the bed and went back to her dinner. She looked up when she realized he had stopped eating and was looking at her with the oddest expression. "What?"

"I—you—I can't believe you were serious."

She speared a piece of her fish. "There is a kernel of truth in all jokes. And you look like you could use some cheering up."

He smiled and finally started digging into his own fish. "I'm sorry we didn't have a real vacation."

"Our life is never going to be normal," she said, feeling oddly philosophical about it. "I mean, really. You can fly. And power buildings. It think will just always be extraordinary. Might as well embrace that."

He ate a few bites. "I guess it's good you're accepting this now and not after aliens crash our wedding, or something."

"There is no scientific evidence for the existence of aliens." She finished her fish and skipped the side so she could move onto what looked like marble cheesecake. 

"There was no scientific evidence of the element I made a few days ago. Then I made it. I don't count out anything."

"Technically there was, you just hadn't found it yet." He gave her a look and she grinned. "Sorry." She sucked the cheesecake off her fork very slowly, knowing it would distract him.

He shook his head and finished his fish, scraping up the last of the whipped potatoes that went with it. "Do you want to go back home or spend a couple days here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know." She stared out at the glittering Waikiki skyline in the distance. "I think maybe I'd like to get back to work."

Tony choked and had to take a swig of what appeared to be pineapple juice. "What happened to you have things to do?"

"I was referring to the reasonably complicated medical procedures I'm going to need in the near future. That doesn't mean next week. The more I thought about it, the more I'd actually like to get things stabilized at the company first."

She saw his mouth start to curl in a smile, but he hid it in his drink. "Back to work it is."

Pepper ate more of her cheesecake. "Don't gloat. Also, I was think you're all wrong about a small town."

"How so?" he asked, brows up.

"It'll look like a hobby or a stunt. The press will make up some sort of silly name, and insist it could never scale up. You don't want a whole small town." She tapped the glass in the direction of the skyline. "You want one big building, in a very big city."

He was silent, looking out the window. "Guess I should call my real estate agent, huh?"

She grinned. "You agree?"

"i do. It's a good first step. It's a statement. And I can put my name on a huge building in a major city."

"I didn't say you had to put your name on it." She finished the cheesecake, and stood up, feeling his eyes follow her.

"I'm Tony Stark, of course i have to put my name on it."

She shook her head. She walked across the room, taking the flower they'd put on the pillows and set it on the nightstand. Then she turned back the covers. He put his juice down and hurried to follow her. "Just my last name?" he offered.

"Hell, put your face on it," she said, climbing under the covers. They were cool, soft sheets, and the mattress was heavenly.

He shucked his pants and tugged his shirt off with one hand before joining her between the sheets. He wrapped his arms around her and tugged her closer. "That might be a little much."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "I didn't know I could be this tired," she mumbled.

He kissed the top of her head. "We can rain check the nookie till the morning."

Her eyes were already closed. Under the blanket, her hand found his. "I could probably muster something."

"I prefer quality to quantity, Pepper."

That was the last thing she heard. When she woke, the sun was up, the sliding doors were open, and she could hear the ocean and smell tropical air. It was like time unwinding. Tony stroked her back gently with his fingertips. She rolled over and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Neither of them said a word, but it wasn't particularly necessary. It was hard and fast, more intense than she expected and very much worth the wait.

"This is paradise," he murmured, resting his head on her breasts afterwards.

"Indeed," she replied, ruffling his hair.

He sighed in contentment, kissing her skin. "Let's come back here for our next vacation attempt."

"Maybe we _should_ stay here for a couple days. . ."

After a few more kisses he lifted his head. "You're fickle, you know that?"

"I think out loud. And I do want to get back to work. But this is civilization. There's internet." She held out her hand toward the open balcony door. "And ocean."

He sat up, leaning against the headboard and admiring the view. "I bet work is more fun when you do it from paradise."

She looked at the clock. "The plane should be here by now. Do I guess correctly you had it loaded with a couple of laptops and some toys for you to tinker with?"

For a moment he just looked at her, then his face split into a grin. "I love you. You know me so well."

Pepper bit her lip. Now that she didn't expect. At least, she thought someday she'd have to goad it out of him. For a moment she thought she might cry. "I love you, too," she said quiet.

She half expected him to panic at the threat of tears or try to backpedal. But he just caught her arm and tugged her close, hugging her to his chest carefully.

It had been a long week. A long year. A long road. But for the moment, she felt safe and content. Like the future would be good. "Take a shower," she said after a moment. "I'll order us breakfast. Then I can go to the shop downstairs and get us some clothes that aren't from the navy gym closet, while you go over to the plane."

He leaned back so he could kiss her. "Yes, dear."

They had macadamia nut french toast, most of a pineapple, and some truly amazing coffee. Afterwards, they lingered out on the lanai for a while. 

"Suppose we should get to it," Tony said finally.

"Yes. I need a sundress and a bikini." She looked up at him. "And a laptop."

He stood and stretched. "I will hand deliver it to you personally. Anything else I can bring you."

"Thank you." She stood, they kissed, and she watched him walk all the way to the door before calling. "Tony? I know you sent a suit on the plane. You can get that, too."

He gave her that patented Tony Stark grin and blew her a kiss. "Love you!" he called.

She was going to buy a very tiny bikini, just for him. "I love you," she replied. She blew the kiss back. "Even when you're Iron Man."


	8. Epilogue

_Puente Antiguo, New Mexico_

Russia was a cold place, and growing up there had made Natasha Romanov not a huge fan of the desert. She would not voluntarily be in a place like Bumblefuck, New Mexico if her partner were not stuck there, guarding a large tent and an 0-8-4.

Though. . . from the looks of this town, clearly something had happened since she talked to him before getting on her plane in New York. He'd complained about being bored, and it was a feat to bore a sniper. Now the town looked like a tornado had come through.

She found the compound west of town, in the midst of being rapidly dismantled. She enjoyed the speed and efficiency with which SHIELD did things. She parked on the edge of the chaos and surveyed it until she could see the the armory trailer being hitched onto a semi. Clint would be over there, fussing over it like a nervous parent.

People got out of her way as she moved though the crowd. Because even when bugging out of a hastily constructed command center, you got out of Natasha Romanov's way.

When she reached the armory sure enough, there was Barton, hovering over the crates. She slunk up next to him. "Did you blow up a town?"

He turned his head and smiled. "Hello. You missed all the fun." He looked at his watch. "Sorry, I should have called before you drove out here."

"A few hours ago you were bored."

He lifted a shoulder. "Drive me back to Albuquerque and I'll tell you all about it."

"Sounds like a deal. Afterwards, would you like to hear about my exciting time as an EA?"

He hefted up his duffle bag and the case containing his bow, which he didn't trust to SHEILD logistics. "I am dying to hear about that," he said as they started walking. "Coulson told me Stark went on vacation and got caught in that tsunami in the south Pacific. There was a naval rescue."

"The man drags trouble behind him like a cape," she said, holding the tent flap open for him to duck through. "I ran out of ways to say 'terrible idea' on my evaluation for him."

When they reached her rental car, he stowed his gear in the trunk. She tossed him the keys because she'd already driven two hours. It was probably a violation of her rental agreement, but that was Travel's problem. He started the engine. "Bedpost notch?"

She waved a hand. "Nah. He's in love with Potts. Shameless flirt but there's nothing behind it." Her phone began to ring, and she looked down to see Stark’s number. Like she'd summoned him with the conversation.

She cursed under her breath and held up a finger to Barton before answering. "What?"

"Do you remember the tie that you got me for my birthday?" Stark asked without preamble.

Not what she'd expected him to ask, but she could roll with it. "The one Pepper ordered me to find. Yes."

"What did it look like? I need it."

"Why? Weren't you just in a tsunami? Is that a formal occasion now?"

"I'm in Hawaii. I want to have the tie overnighted so I can wear it. But I need a description. And possibly the details from the label. I have a lot of ties. If it has a label, that will help."

Nat pinched the bridge of her nose. Barton was giving her the most befuddled look she'd ever seen on his face. She couldn't believe she was about to offer what she was about to offer. "When do you need it?"

"Sometime this week." He paused. "Why?"

"I'm in New Mexico. If you give me twenty four hours I can be in a real city, buy you a new tie on the Stark credit card still in my wallet, get myself a finders fee present and ship it to you myself. Then you don't have to try to describe it to some poor office assistant over the phone."

That got her a moment of silence on the other side. "I knew hiring you was a good idea. Don't spend more than ten grand on yourself, I don't want the IRS involved."

If that was her budget she was getting Clint something, too. "Text me the shipping address. And I'm going to need the full story someday."

"Crazy things we do for love," he replied. 

She took the phone away from her ear and peered at it, double checking she was talking to the actual Tony Stark. "Good for you, Stark," she said sincerely.

"Thank you," he replied. 

When she hung up, there was a beat of silence, and then Barton asked, "So, we're buying him a tie?"


End file.
